


by my blood

by lutzaussi



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Found Family, Gen, Jiraiya is a Hatake, M/M, The Sand Sibs are not Fucked Up, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-01-16 07:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12338544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lutzaussi/pseuds/lutzaussi
Summary: Kakashi finds love and family, all in one near-successful murder.





	1. Chapter 1

Kakashi is on his way back from a solo infiltration mission in Kusagakure when he hears the tell-tale sounds of a struggle. Really, it’s just a strangled yell that ends in a gurgling noise, but he’s not foolish enough to think that whatever is happening will not affect him, especially since the sounds are coming from dead ahead.

It does earn a silent groan, though, and he slows from the rapid pace he’d set hours before. The border is close, which means home is relatively close, and he hopes that he can just sneak past whatever’s happening in front of him.

He…can’t. He’s moving in a wide semi-circle around where the yell came from when he notices the two people with red hair, and then he notices the person they’re crouched over is wearing standard Konoha fatigues. Aw, hell. Kakashi drops the sneakiness, heads in with a kunai in one hand across the river.

“Karin, get bandages from the house.” The woman kneeling over the person on the ground has her hands out, the pale green of her chakra hovering over the person’s throat while a young girl runs off, toward a dingy shack in the trees. She starts only mildly when Kakashi appears, and glances appraisingly at the kunai in his hand, the symbol on his forehead protector. “Shinobi-san,” her voice is calm but urgent, “I know you cannot trust me, but this man was attacked by a man who fled into the woods, there,” she nods her head, into the trees. Her voice remains steady even as her chakra blazes more intensely, “I can’t take my hands away, he was already bleeding out when we got to him.”

She’s right; he doesn’t trust her. It’s a snap decision to create a shadow clone and leave it, follow the direction she pointed out.   
-

The chuunin in general are not well-known to Kakashi, but he does vaguely recognize the man that he finds keeled over about fifty meters away from the river. It appears that there’s a seal stuck to his chest that’s preventing him from moving in some way. Kakashi takes a moment to appreciate how ingenious that is before hauling the man up and checking him over.

Definitely a chuunin. The white hair—he has an M-name, Kakashi can’t remember what it is but he knows that Anko doesn’t like the man. Maybe he was affiliated with the Academy? Whatever the case, Kakashi makes sure he isn’t bleeding out, leaves the seal attached to his chest, and drags him back to where the red-haired woman is after knocking him out.

There’s a lot of blood. Not just on the Konoha shinobi, but on the woman and her daughter; the girl is probably eight or nine, now that he can take a look at her, but she’s not shirking away from the gore. In fact, she’s carefully watching the woman, who must be her mother with how similar they look.

“The bleeding is stopped for now,” the woman says, “Karin, go wash up. I’ll clean him up.”

The girl peers at Kakashi’s clone, then at Kakashi approaching, and does as asked.

The woman looks up when Kakashi dispels his clone, exhaustion evident on her face. “With luck, he’ll live,” she says, wiping her face with a clean spot of her sleeve. “He needs to go to a hospital; being out here increases the likelihood of infection, and his throat has been badly damaged. But for now, he should go inside; it’s going to rain tonight. I’ll fetch a pallet.”

She bustles off, wiping her hands absently on the dark purple robe that is tied over her pants and long-sleeved shirt. The blood, tacky, spreads to the fabric.

Kakashi dumps his load away from the man on the ground, steps over to see if he can identify who it is. Mousy brown hair, skin that normally would have a healthy deep color, a scar across the nose--

Oh.

_ Oh _ .

Umino Iruka. That means white-hair is Mizuki, and  _ that’s _ why he looks familiar; Kakashi knows Umino because Umino had to be vetted to start working at the Academy. Mizuki received the same vetting and failed because of several questionable marks on his record. Kakashi had been privy to all of Tenzou’s bitching about the research he’d had to do for that.

Kakashi actually starts when the woman reappears, a rush pallet tucked under one of her arms. He helps her load Umino onto it, and they carry him into the shack where Karin is stoking up a fire.

“Right here, shinobi-san, near the fire. Karin, can you go get some water? Please?” the woman adjusts the pallet, goes to a corner and collects two blankets, which she lays over the prone man.

“Hatake,” Kakashi says on impulse. She looks at him, still guarded. “Hatake Kakashi.”

She considers, slowly nods. “Uzumaki Mao. Karin is my daughter. You are from Konoha.”

“Yes.”

“Do you know,” Mao pauses, looks at Iruka, looks back at Kakashi, “why?”

Kakashi shakes his head, minutely. “But I intend to find out,” he adds.

-

He decides the best course of action is to interrogate Mizuki outside and a ways in the woods. Just in case. Doesn’t want to wake Karin or Mao or end up with blood everywhere. Not that there will be blood anywhere, interrogations are laughably easy thanks to the Sharingan. But.  _ Just in case _ .

Mizuki wakes up pretty quickly once Kakashi dunks him in the river. He doesn’t even try to fight, and as soon as he looks at Kakashi he falls under the Sharingan.

Laughably easy.

“What is your name?”

“Toji Mizuki,” he says, voice monotone.

“How old are you? When is your birthday?”

“Twenty-four years old. October twenty-first.”

“Why were you in these woods today?”

“Mission, B-rank. Border patrol and picking up messages from the watch posts.”

“What happened on the riverbank?”

Mizuki’s face remains blank. “We found the women. Iruka wanted to approach; I disagreed.”

“You fought,” Kakashi prods, trying to put together a picture of what happened.

“He approached anyway, began talking to him. We were supposed to be back tomorrow, with two shitty civilians it would’ve taken longer. Then I figured, if Iruka happened to be hurt by them before I got rid of them, I’d be seen as a hero for saving him,” Mizuki intones the story emotionlessly.

Something unpleasant seems to be crawling up Kakashi’s back. Mizuki isn’t even aware of anything, but his personality sure seems to be shining through. He forces himself to ask the next question, “You are the one who attacked Umino?”

“Yes.”

“You were fully aware of your actions in doing so?”

“Yes.”

Kakashi hesitates. He’s aware that Mizuki and Umino are something like friends, or at least they spend a lot of time together, so he wants to know. “Why?”

“Because I hate him,” Mizuki says, baldly.

-

Kakashi quietly accepts food from Mao, trusting that it won’t be poisoned or otherwise dosed with anything. They don’t talk, not until Karin has gone to sleep in a far corner of the hut and Mizuki has been trussed up and knocked out, left outside just in case.

“I hope that he will be dealt with,” Mao says, making them somewhat watery cups of tea.

“He will be, once we get back to Konoha,” Kakashi says. And he hesitates, because he doesn’t want to assume things about Mao and her daughter, but they are very obviously destitute, traveling where they can find work. “You are welcome to travel with us.”

“To Konoha?” Mao sounds skeptical.

Kakashi nods. “You saved a Konoha shinobi from death.”

She understands the implications, and turns to look at Karin for a few silent moments. The look in her eyes when she turns back to Kakashi is fierce, protective. “We will go to Konoha.”

-

The trip back to Konoha would normally take an average shinobi two days. With his baggage and Mao and her daughter coming along, Kakashi expects it to take the better part of a week.

It is surprising, then, to find Mao with Karin piggy-back atop her, moving at as swift a pace as even Kakashi can manage with Iruka on his back. Mizuki, once motivated with the threat of genjutsu or worse, kicks in gear as well.

By the time they camp for the night, they’re well over a quarter of the way back to Konoha, and Kakashi can breathe a sigh of relief now that they’re in the Land of Fire. Not that he can afford to rest; he refuses Mao’s offer to take a watch. Once everyone has been fed Kakashi knocks Mizuki out with a pressure point, and Mao tucks Karin in to a simple bedroll. She hovers over Iruka for a few minutes, making sure he isn’t bleeding and he’s comfortable, before hesitating for a moment at the fire.

“You are sure that we will be welcomed in Konohagakure,” she says. He isn’t quite sure if it is a question, or merely reassurance.

“Yes,” he says, and he knows that some way it will be true. The Uzumaki have all but died out, but are still very respected in the Land of Fire and even had he just stumbled upon Mao and Karin they would’ve been welcomed. With her saving Iruka it guaranteed that she and Karin would have a place to live and be allowed to work in and for the village. Perhaps even as shinobi.

Mao searches his visible eye for a moment, then nods. She joins her daughter and falls asleep, leaving Kakashi alone in the light of the fire.

-

They arrive with little fanfare at the massive gates three days later. Kakashi searches the woods for one of the Anbu that are always hanging around, just in case, and signs that he needs medics and escort before they actually get to the city.

Three cloaked Anbu flicker down before the two chuunin at the desk even see them. Kakashi nods to Mizuki, signs for him to be taken to Ibiki. Medics are next, but they stop to wait next to the chuunin for directions.

“Mao, tell them what you’ve done for him and what he needs,” Kakashi says, nodding this time to the medics, who unroll a portable stretcher and gently ease the limp body off of Kakashi’s back. “Listen to her, she knows what she’s doing,” he says in turn to the medic-nin who appears to be in charge.

That just leaves the chuunin at the desk, who look rather bewildered with the whole thing.

“Send a message to the Hokage, I bring two civilians seeking asylum in Konoha, Uzumaki Mao and her daughter, Karin,” he introduces them. Karin hides behind her mother, and despite being nearly ten she peeks shyly at the shinobi at the desk.

One of the confused chuunin heads off at an impressive pace to the Tower, reappearing a minute after the medics disappear into the distance.

“The Hokage awaits you in his office,” the chuunin says, after catching her breath.

Kakashi nods, leads Mao and Karin and their Anbu escorts directly to the Tower. No point in putting anything off.

The Hokage is, true to the chuunin’s word, waiting for them in his office. He is reading a report in such a way that means he’s not actually reading it, instead watching them file in. A nod dismisses the Anbu, and he leans forward to inspect Mao and Karin.

Even if he hadn’t known their family connection, it’s rather fucking obvious that both of them are Uzumaki. Mao shares the same violet-grey eyes that both Kushina and Mito had, and though her daughter’s eyes are a startling crimson they both also share the characteristic red hair.

“Uzumaki Mao and Uzumaki Karin,” the Hokage says, “I must ask you to stand out for a few minutes while Hatake-san reports to me on the events that occurred. Shinobu will see that you are comfortable.”

-

Briefing the Hokage takes a while, more than the few minutes that he told Mao it would take. But other than that, everything goes by rather quickly; with Ibiki’s corroboration, Mizuki is taken away to be dealt with by the Council. Mao and Karin receive preliminary paperwork and temporary living passes.

By the time they leave the Tower, they are almost citizens of Konoha. Almost. There’s a probationary period of two months during which they have to stay with Kakashi, because he in effect sponsored them by bringing them to Konoha.

The terms of the Uzumaki’s probationary stay in Konoha are simple, but they are enough to make Kakashi want to call the whole thing off. The most annoying part of the entire setup is that he’s off-duty until a decision is made either way, and that means he’s staying in the Hatake compound with Karin and Mao.

It’s not preferable.

He hasn’t been in the house since he moved to the jounin dorms at age nine; it’s been sealed up and stayed virtually untouched in the intervening years. There’s some water damage from when the pond flooded, and a few signs of moths and mice, but the house seems like a time capsule. His parent’s things are untouched; the clothes and possessions that he left behind likewise. It’s a blessing that Karin is exhausted from their time on the road the first few days, because it gives Kakashi that time to childproof the house.

His parents things end up boxed, placed in the attic. His old things--he gets rid of. The clothes will never fit him again, the weapons are rusted to the point of uselessness, the mementos have lost all meaning. The only things that remains untouched are the family photographs, hanging in the main living area, and that is only because Mao looks rather savagely at him whenever he has thoughts about taking them down.

So, once he’s moved back in, his old apartment empty, and Mao and Karin have been approved to live with him (with one ever-present Anbu hanging out on the roof across the street), he decides to spend his sudden plethora of free time renovating the house.

The house needs renovation, and badly. Even ignoring the fact that there are still bloodstains in what was formerly his father’s bedroom (temporarily covered by a hideous rug), being untouched turned the building into a mess. He spends the first two days meticulously buying linens and ordering new tatami. Mao takes it upon herself to clean out the bedrooms, with Karin’s somewhat unwilling help. Slowly, everything beings to look clean; it’s different from before, and Kakashi is quite sure he appreciates that.

-

The kitchen takes a week in its own right, because it’s  _ filthy _ . There’s mice living in the cupboards, the metal dishes are rusted and the ceramics are cracked. Kakashi’s bank account is ready to throttle him by the time he returns to the house with way too many goddamn plates and tea cups.

Mao has the shutters open, the entire home still airing out the smell of small rodents and mustiness. She’s in the main room, sitting with a small stack of books next to her, reading one of them with such focus she doesn’t even notice Kakashi’s return. He leaves her to it, vaguely wondering where Karin might be as he takes the boxes of dishes into the kitchen. There’s not much she can get into--if Kakashi’s good at anything it’s at keeping secrets  _ secret _ \--but the thought of a child running around his own childhood home is just a little terrifying.

The cupboards have been restored, so he mindlessly puts the new dishes away in new places, collapses the boxes and adds them to the pile in the hallway that is nearly as tall as he is. He considers the bathrooms and what they’ll need (apart from a good tiling) while maneuvering out to the back of the house.

Kakashi is immediately attacked by both Karin and all of his own ninken, who have turned against him because Karin rubs their bellies whenever they want and Kakashi doesn’t. Part of him wants to protest, but he decides to accept fate at that point. Maybe he’s deserved it.

Pakkun remains next to him while the rest romp off to the pond (he wants to yell no, because who the fuck knows what might be growing in the water, but he doesn’t) and places a soft paw on his cheek. “You okay, kiddo?” Pakkun asks.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” Kakashi says, the bewilderment in his voice almost physically palpable.

Pakkun scratches a flea, sighs and lays down next to Kakashi’s head. “Ain’t that the truth.”

-

Mao very quickly adapts to life in the village. It’s a blessing, that he doesn’t have to chaperone her after a while and that she can take Karin and go out for an afternoon. The Anbu always follow her, anyway, so he doesn’t have to worry about that. But the problem comes when Mao wants to go out without Karin, which is how Kakashi ends up playing babysitter.

He’s...not good with children.

And, yeah, Karin is like, barely a child, and that only really being her size and her limited vocabulary, so they end up getting along like a house on fire. Karin loves the dogs, Karin loves Konoha, and Karin loves being taken out to wander the city because she loves watching people. It takes her a while to open up to him but he supposes he doesn’t really set a good example on that front.

They’re out one afternoon a few weeks into the Uzumaki’s probationary stay because Karin is growing like a weed and doesn’t have enough clothes, though he did make sure both she and her mother had money for them. If Kakashi knows little about children, he knows even less about clothing them, so for the most part he just makes sure that the clothes are suited to Mao’s standards and pays. He lets Karin convince him to go to the dango shop, and there Karin makes her first friend.

-

Kakashi doesn’t recognize the family, but he thinks that the girl’s mother must be a jounin because she looks familiar. In any case, they do recognize him and stare with wide eyes as Karin goes up to their daughter and introduces herself by saying, “My name’s Karin! Your hair is beautiful!”

The pink-haired girl stutters out, looking between Karin and Kakashi, “T-thank you? I’m Sakura.”

With the sheer amount of joy on Karin’s face matched by the bewilderment on Sakura’s, Kakashi can already tell that they’re going to be the best of friends.

-

He’s right. He regrets that he’s right because it means he has two children to look after when Mao isn’t watching them and  _ then _ Sakura starts bringing another friend over, Inoichi’s kid. At least the dogs amuse them, and he’s more than glad to let them, even if it means he has to buy the more expensive steak as an offering.

Kakashi is cooking said steak when Mao walks into the kitchen after arriving home. The Hokage seemed genuinely supportive of her becoming an official medic-nin, so she spends most of her days studying or helping at the hospital. “Bribing the dogs again?” she jibes, and Kakashi can only sigh and shrug. He does want them to still like him.

She quiets, and when he looks over to the small table in the kitchen she’s staring at him. Her expression seems unfathomable.

“Have you visited Umino-san?” Mao asks after a few moments.

Kakashi stops, stands stock-still. He exhales. The thought has crossed his mind but--but what right has he to visit someone he doesn’t know, whose life he didn’t even really help to save? Before he can articulate any of his thoughts, Mao thoughtfully adds, “He’s been awake for a few days. He mentioned he wants to thank you.”

Kakashi slowly resumes searing the steaks, mind stuck.

-

Somehow he finds himself at the hospital the next day, bypassing the front desk and the intermittent care stations, actually scaling up one of the walls to peer into windows until he finds the room he’s looking for. In lieu of crawling in the window he flickers into the interior hallway, knocks, and opens the door.

Umino Iruka is alive and awake, and some knot that Kakashi wasn’t aware of loosens in his back. He’s tucked into the bed but sitting up, the pale blue blankets snug around his waist and his long hair loose around his face. His eyes stutter up to Kakashi’s face, and Kakashi is struck by how young the man looks. How nervous he looks.

“I am glad to see you looking better, Umino-san,” Kakashi says. Then amends, “Relative to how you did look.”

That earns a small smile.  _ Thank you, Hatake-san _ , Iruka signs out, his hands moving rapidly even if the rest of his movements look painfully slow.

“Kakashi,” Kakashi says, hesitantly sits on the chair. Jesus, though he looks better there’s still a pallid quality to his skin, and the bags under his eyes are very pronounced. Almost as if he hasn’t been sleeping. “You have met Mao.”

Iruka signs,  _ yes _ , instead of nodding. Every movement of his head looks to hurt and part of Kakashi wants to push him back down to laying and make him sleep.  _ She is very kind _ , he adds.

Kakashi exhales out of his nose, a semblance of laughter, and says, “Yes. She is.” And because he isn’t sure if anyone actually tells Iruka news that isn’t about Mizuki, he adds, “She and Karin are staying with me, for the time being.”

Iruka’s eyebrows pull together, confusion evident. The look is adorable. Kakashi wants to die.  _ At your _ he pauses,  _ house? _

Kakashi nods, realizing that it probably isn’t widely known that he kept his parents’ house. “My family house,” he clarifies, and understanding dawns on Iruka’s face. “I don’t think we would fit in my dorm.”

That leads to some questions about Mao and Karin, how they’re fitting in and what’s being done by the Hokage. Iruka’s sheer selflessness is a marvel, and it’s only when Kakashi asks how he is that he even mentions himself. All things considered, he seems to be doing well. That doesn’t mean that Kakashi isn’t nursing a kernel of concern over him as he says his goodbyes and heads to the door.

Anko is standing in the hall, talking with one of the medic-nin, and if Kakashi was any less of a shinobi he probably would have run into her. As it is, he bends around her, and she eyes him with surprise. “Is this real life? Is Hatake Kakashi willingly in the hospital?” she asks, and the medic-nin snorts, leaves them. When they’re alone her tone turns from the childish mischief it normally has to actual seriousness, “Thank you for bringing him back.”

Kakashi nods. He knows that Anko’s close to Umino, vaguely. He also knows that Anko’s sleeping with Ibiki, so he asks, “Mizuki?”

Her eyes flash. “Dealt with. Finally.”

That is a little concerning, but Kakashi leaves it for later. Instead, because somehow he’s become invested in the welfare of the man he saved, he inquires, “When’s he getting out?”

Anko shrugs, “A few days; problem is, he can’t be on his own. I’m leaving on a mission, so’s everyone else pretty much. And I can’t really imagine he’d be okay staying with Genma and Raidou.”

The mere thought is a little disturbing. “I’ll,” Kakashi says, “deal with that.”

She raises a skeptical eyebrow, but nods and opens to door to go in.

-

Kakashi leaves the hospital with what might be a crush on Umino Iruka, and sincere intent to coerce the Hokage into letting him stay at the Hatake house when he’s released from the hospital.

He misses the amused and slightly concerned look that follows him out, courtesy of Anko. And he misses the rumors that begin to circle about him actually willingly going to the hospital in order to visit one Umino Iruka.

-

Mao and Karin receive their papers the day Iruka gets out of the hospital.

Kakashi’s with them at the Tower feeling somewhat irrationally proud, because he really did nothing but vouch for them. All the respect and good-will the citizens of Konoha held toward them, that was Mao and Karin.

He conceded to make okonomiyaki for dinner at Karin’s insistence, and after picking up the necessary ingredients they head to the hospital. It’s a dual purpose, too, because Mao needs to drop of the paperwork necessary for her to start working at the hospital in addition to them collecting Iruka. The paperwork takes only a minute, and then one of the medics wheels Iruka out to them in a wheelchair.

Arguably the look of cranky grogginess is more adorable than that of confusion he had worn just days before, but Kakashi doesn’t want to think about that. Iruka emphatically refuses to be carted in the wheelchair to the house, or carried, so Kakashi settles on taking his arm to make sure he doesn’t wobble too far over. The one blessing is that the house is rather close to the hospital, in the older part of the city, so they don’t have far to walk. Iruka looks exhausted by the time they do arrive, and Kakashi prepares a bed for him while Mao makes sure he’s okay.

Once he’s passed out Kakashi starts the okonomiyaki, and Mao sits at the small kitchen table to watch him.

“You know,” Mao says, in the careful tone that she tends to use with him, “those family pictures are looking quite dusty.”

Kakashi shoots her a glance, nods slowly before resuming the task of shredding cabbage.

“Maybe you could put up a new one, when you dust them,” she suggests, and Kakashi can’t help a small smile as he moves on to the batter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Children. So many children. What did he do to deserve this?

Iruka explores the house slowly, once the grogginess from the pain medicine has worn off the day after they’ve picked him up. Everyone generally stays out of his way except for the dogs, who follows his footsteps as though he’s their master instead of Kakashi. Mao has orientation at the hospital, anyway, and Kakashi’s taking Karin to the Academy to get registered. Both her and Sakura are looking forward to their two years of schooling eagerly, especially since they’ll be in the same class as Ino.

Kakashi feels rather bad for their future teacher. He doesn’t actually know who said teacher is, because Iruka was actually supposed to teach their class and the whole school had to be adjusted accordingly with his premature retirement. They haven’t fixed the schedule by the time he gets Karin signed up, so he just memorizes the room number and reminds himself to do recon later. The teachers are all jumpy around him anyway, he wouldn’t want to frighten them more than he already has. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t flicker into their workroom and scare the shit out of all the people in the room when he submits Karin’s papers.

They pick up lunch on their way back to the house, enough for the two of them, Iruka, and a little for the dogs. If they’re lucky.

Iruka’s out in the back, staring across the pond into the stand of bamboo that is maintained by one of the neighbors, his eyes somewhat glazed. He looks nowhere near as grouchy as he did the day before, and Kakashi has no qualms about pausing to tell him (and the dogs) that they have food.

Karin stops by Iruka and converses with him for a while, already having picked up the signed alphabet so she can at least slowly understand what he says. It gives Kakashi enough time to get out dishes and start some water for tea.

Iruka can’t have solid food, so they got him several different soups (all chosen by Karin) in addition to food for them, and some grilled beef for the dogs. It isn’t long before Karin drags Iruka in, the dogs following them, and they sit down to eat.

-

Iruka is quiet, which is a given, but Kakashi is also stupidly worried that he’s anxious or not settling well. It makes no sense; Kakashi isn’t used to living with other people and he’s certainly not used to worrying about other people. Well, that’s a lie, he worries like hell about other people but he doesn’t do it openly and he most definitely does not ever do anything about his worry.

It appears that this is a year for fucking his entire constructed life and habits up, however, so after dinner a few days into Iruka’s stay at the house Kakashi leaves Mao and Karin to clean up and talk about their days in peace. He shows Iruka the second living room, where most of his own books are as well as the ones that Mao has been collecting for herself and Karin (no porn, those are hidden). He tells him about his ninken, formally introduces them though by now they all know who Iruka is.

Kakashi finds himself telling Iruka a little about the house; some of its history is more widely known, so he avoids those topics. Their conversation, once Iruka starts signing, asking questions and answering questions, continues for so long that Kakashi doesn’t notice the passing of time until he needs to get up and flick the overhead lights on.

Mao brings Iruka tea for his throat and engages in their conversation for a while, until they all split off for bed. Iruka and Kakashi watch Mao leave to herd Karin off, and Kakashi says, “You should probably go to bed, before Mao comes and knocks you out.” She has threatened it.

Iruka smiles. He gently touches Kakashi’s arm with light fingers, and once Kakashi’s attention is on him he signs, eyes bright,  _ Thank you for accepting me into your home. _

Kakashi dips his head in more than acknowledgement; Iruka’s moods seem infectious, and fondness overwhelms Kakashi as he looks up and replies, “It’s your home now, too.”

-

It’s two weeks into the school year when Karin shows up after class with not just the usual two in tow, but a whole crowd of children that only reach Kakashi’s abdomen. He recognizes some of them because of their parentage, but the sheer amount of children is enough to make him flee to a quieter room and forgo any introductions that may have materialized. Karin follows him to the secondary living room, announces, “They wanted to see the dogs. We’ll be out back.”

He nods, hopes the dogs don’t kill him, and blissfully concerns himself with reorganizing the bookshelf. It takes all of twenty minutes because it’s his default go-to when he’s stressed out. Then there’s nothing keeping him busy, and he can hear a voice that sounds like Mao in his head saying “Check on the children,” so, he goes and checks on the children.

The dogs have surprisingly not murdered anyone, and the house isn’t burning down. In fact, the kids are rather sedately attending to the dogs and not causing trouble at all, which is surprising because--

Wait.

_ Wait.  _

Kakashi nearly gets whiplash when he does a double-take, focusing in on the blond mess of hair the likes of which he hasn’t seen in nearly a decade. Good god, is Naruto really in the Academy? Has it been that long since Minato and Kushina sacrificed themselves? He’s in a fucking daze and is only snapped out of it when the kids and dogs, en masse, swarm to the other side of the u-shaped porch. Iruka.

“No, he can’t talk, he uses signs!” Karin is explaining while Kakashi draws nearer to them. “You know, the ones we learn every week on Thursdays. Here, this is how you say hello,” she brings her hand up to her head, waves it once as though saluting. Iruka smiles at her, does the same gesture in return.

He tacks on an added,  _ can you introduce us? _ and Karin beams.

“This is Sakura, you know Sakura and Ino, this is Choji, he knows Ino, Hinata is a Hyuuga! She has special eyes! Kiba has a dog, his name is Akamaru, and this is Naruto, did you know is last name is the same as mine?” she spews the words out like a boulder rolling down a hill, impervious to any attempts of the other kids to make her be quiet. “We might be  _ related _ !” she finishes in a conspiratorial way, and Naruto is grinning at her from his position in the back of the mass of dogs and children.

_ My name is Iruka _ , Iruka signs, and Karin translates for him.  _ It is nice to meet all of you _ . Then his eyes flicker back, past the kids, to where Kakashi is lurking, and he signs,  _ Kakashi _ .

Good god, why does Kakashi like Iruka. Within seconds all the children and dogs have turned on him, and Karin shrieks, “This is Kakashi! He’s like my brother! The dogs are his!” before bodily launching herself at Kakashi.

He does catch her, the little shit.

-

After that it becomes a thing for Karin to bring the other kids by, but not solely to pet the dogs. Iruka starts teaching them sign, they pester Kakashi to teach them ninjutsu (which does not happen) and they quickly learn that meals in the Hatake house are something of an affair that isn’t to be missed. Kakashi gets used to making food enough for everyone living in the house and maybe a half-dozen more bodies at any given time. The dogs lavish in the attention; Kakashi starts spoiling them more because they are his dogs and he does want to lose any loyalty.

Life, overall, is looking up in a most perplexing way. Kakashi doesn’t really know what to do with himself, frankly.

-

On the other hand, when he goes back to taking missions after the last of Mao and Karin’s paperwork has been officiated.

Two months isn’t a long time; typical Anbu schedules are three months on, four weeks off, so he is familiar with the routine. Something about going back seems rougher than in the past, though, and being thrown into a month-long infiltration mission probably doesn’t help. And in the north, which has the dubious joy of receiving winter a full two months earlier than Konoha.

He comes back from freezing temperatures to normal fall weather. In a moment of weakness, he nearly weeps with joy to be able to feel his fingers again.

Life has moved on without him, which isn’t surprising, but despite that everyone welcomes him when he stomps into the house after giving the Hokage a preliminary report. The usual cadre of children is visiting, all raptly attending to Iruka in the main living room. They all yell their welcomes when Kakashi walks through, headed for his room at the end of the house, and he doesn’t miss the curious look that Iruka sends his way.

He figures that the noise notified Mao to his return, so Kakashi doesn’t feel bad about ignoring everyone in favor of being alone, in his own space.

In fact, Kakashi is so set on ignoring everyone that he actually fully falls asleep on the floor while sharpening the weapons that saw use during his mission. God, how embarrassing, especially when a timid knock sounds on door of his room, jerking him out of sleep.

With a surprising amount of awareness, Kakashi forces himself up and to the door, putting the kunai that was still in his hand down. With all the various weapons on the floor, he desperately hopes that it’s not the children.

Well, his luck. It is the children, but they are escorted by Iruka, or more aptly they are escorting Iruka like a very short and ineffective guard. Iruka looks somewhat embarrassed, and after he (rather effectively) sends the children off by use of the dogs, he signs  _ sorry. _ Kakashi raises his visible eyebrow, and Iruka grimaces a little.

_ Came to tell you there’s food. They insisted on following me _ , Iruka signs.

Kakashi almost laughs. Apparently Iruka doesn’t see how much of a mother hen he himself is. “They’re kids,” Kakashi says in as dismissive a tone as he can muster. “Food, you say?”

Iruka smiles in a bemused way, nods. When he turns to head back toward the other side of the house, Kakashi falls in step with him.

And when Iruka asks him how his mission went, in that endearing, hesitant way that he does, Kakashi actually tells him.

-

Kakashi is back at the house early, after failing his third team of genin in as many years. It is rarely quiet in the Hatake household, but on this particular afternoon Mao is at the hospital in addition to the kids being gone, so it’s just Iruka and the dogs.

And Kakashi. He can easily guess that Iruka will be out on the back porch, the dogs splayed around him in the sunlight. Why the mental image causes his lips to tug up in a smile, he doesn’t know.

He doesn’t go out to the back. He’s hungry, having not eaten yet, and has a hankering for a nap before chaos descends back on the household. Chaos being the combination of Naruto, Karin, Sakura, and Ino. He half feels sorry for Ebisu, having to teach them in addition to all of the other kids in his class, but then again Ebisu is annoying so he doesn’t actually feel bad.

While perusing that amusing line of thought, he heats up some leftover miso and raids the fridge for the rest of his meal. He eats quickly, and, on a whim, does go out to the back porch.

Iruka had been reading, a couple books near his hand, but when Kakashi steps out he’s asleep, head pillowed by Bull’s bulk. Bisuke, who seems to view Iruka as a benevolent god in human form, is sleeping on his lap, and most of the other dogs are passed out around him.

Pakkun rouses and trots over to Kakashi after a few moments, wear-blunted claws clicking on the dark wood of the porch. He waits for Kakashi to slide the door open, trots into the house.

They managed to fit a couch and several arm chairs in the second living room, and that’s where Kakashi collapses. Pakkun patiently waits until Kakashi picks him up and deposits him onto the couch as well before talking, his voice gravelly from sleep, “Iruka-kun’s doing well.”

Kakashi makes an affirmative noise, stretches and throws an arm over his eyes to try and block out the sunlight.

“He’s good here,” Pakkun says, delicately picking his way from near Kakashi’s head to his torso.

That doesn’t merit a reply. “For us.” Kakashi grunts. 

“For  _ all  _ of us,” Pakkun adds, somewhat pointedly, before flopping down on Kakashi’s stomach.

Kakashi is relieved for his mask, the arm over his face. He appears to be blushing.

-

Life settles to normal, or as normal as it can be now that it’s been completely upended.

What Kakashi said to Pakkun still stands: he has no idea what’s going on. It’s maybe easier to deal with, now that Mao and Karin have settled in and Iruka has done the same, but life with people in his house is bizarre at best and downright alarming at worst. There are some things, like his returns from missions and Karin eyeing the trapdoor to the attic, that he feels discomfited by. His entire life has been an experience in adaptation, though, so he does just that. Adapts.

He ends up being coerced into making dinner most nights, because out of all of them he is the best cook. That in itself is a marvel, but Karin and Iruka start to help him out, and soon they are a well-oiled machine that can throw a meal together with minimal bodily harm.

Kakashi, for all his tendencies to push people away and stay silent, finds that he enjoys having people around--having a family. They don’t always get along, but the fact that Kakashi isn’t alone and can talk to others if he wishes is enough to make up for that.

-

There is a problem. That problem is Naruto. From what Kakashi understands, the boy lives on his own in a civilian apartment complex and has lived alone since leaving the orphanage at six. Yes, Kakashi was living on his own at six, but good lord that fucked him up and he doesn’t want that for Naruto, not knowing who Naruto’s parents are and why they did what they did.

He doesn’t bring up his concerns to the Hokage because he knows better than that; the Hokage is why Naruto lives in the apartment alone in the first place. Instead, he brings up his concerns with the one person he knows will share his mindset and be able to do something about it: Mao. She loves the little blond boy like he’s her own son, and he generally trusts her to be more level-headed than he generally is.

That expectation might have been a miscalculation, because as soon as he mentions that Naruto lives alone he has to stop her from running to the Tower and setting it on fire. It’s a mix of emotions he relates very well to.

No, instead they go about things logically. Kakashi petitions for Naruto to move into the Hatake house because he’s technically considered the head of the household, even if Karin and Mao are the only people he lives with who are actually related. The Hokage has to schedule a meeting with the Council, and when that meeting arrives Kakashi, Mao, and Iruka are at it. Iruka wormed his way into their plans and refuses to let it alone, and the Hokage seems to respect him like he doesn’t respect Kakashi and Mao.

The only reason that everything goes their way is probably due to Danzo being absent for some reason, but Kakashi isn’t damn well complaining. It took them months to get to that point and if anyone had insisted on compromise he and Mao both probably would’ve burned down the village.

He and Iruka go to Naruto’s apartment to pick the boy up, having spent enough of the day in the Tower that the Academy has let out when they leave the Tower. Naruto is at his apartment, heating up one of those disgusting fake-ramen bowls that he apparently lives on when he isn’t eating Kakashi’s food. He is obviously confused by their appearance, especially since Kakashi body-flickers them right into the entryway.

“Eh, what’re you doing here Iruka-sensei?” he asks, in the middle of eating. Jesus, didn’t he ever learn manners at the orphanage? The thought depresses Kakashi.

Naruto does know about their long-term battle to have him move into the Hatake house, mostly because Karin won’t let the mystery of their shared last name die. So, when Iruka signs  _ we talked to the Hokage _ , Naruto’s face lights up.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, what did the old man say?” Naruto says, leaping up, ramen forgotten.

Iruka glances at Kakashi, who shrugs as if to say, “Might as well tell him.”

_ You are going to live with us _ , Iruka says, and his use of “us” makes Kakashi face inexplicably warm, even as Naruto jumps onto both of them, crowing.

“When can I go? Can I take all my stuff? Will I have my own room?” he begins the barrage of questions, and Kakashi leaves Iruka to answer while he scopes out what they need to do for Naruto’s apartment. There’s scuffs on the walls, broken curtain rods, and the kitchen will need to be cleaned. Kakashi doesn’t even bother looking in the refrigerator; it’s bound to be a disaster.

He returns to where Naruto and Iruka are talking, announces, “Get your clothes and overnight things, we can move everything else tomorrow.”

Naruto crows again, leaps on Kakashi and hugs him around the neck.

-

Naruto moves into the Hatake house nearly a year after his and Karin’s admission into the Academy. There’s plenty of space for everyone and their myriad of daily routines aren’t too disrupted, but it’s a change. Naruto is loud and brash and it takes a while for him to learn basic manners (as in, not yelling inside the house) but he slots into their lives easily. Naruto is likeable, and manages to make friends out of everyone.

Though they need to work on the the whole ‘loving violence’ thing, as Iruka has taken to calling it.

Iruka. Jesus, Iruka loves Naruto like a little brother or a son, and it’s worth the kid’s obnoxious yelling to see the bright, fond smiles that grace Iruka’s face whenever they’re together. There was a slight hesitation in their early interactions that takes some time to leave, but Iruka seems eternally benevolent in all of his interactions with everyone regardless of how he feels about them.

It is almost physically painful how precious their interactions are, and Kakashi finds his mind turning to Iruka at an increasing rate, even when he’s out in the field. It’s distracting and not at all proper and he wants it to damn well stop because he doesn’t even really know how he’s functioning properly.

But. Naruto. Naruto is doing better in his classes within weeks of moving in with Kakashi’s ragtag household, actually gets nutrition that isn’t solely from ramen, and actually has a support system. Kakashi is partly furious at himself for not noticing that Minato and Kushina’s son was living a life of neglect, but, looking back, he was not in the right mind to take care of a child-- _ he _ was a child, at the time. No, the blame solely rests on the Hokage and the Council, and Kakashi finds himself considering retirement whenever he’s sent on particularly nasty missions, which seems to be happening more and more often.

-

On one such mission, Kakashi gets a head wound. It isn’t the only thing--he has three fingers that he splinted together, and his ribs feel like someone stomped on them (maybe someone did), but it is definitely what hurts the most. He patched it up as best he could, without using the little chakra he still had in reserve, and the only thing on his mind while he’s flying through the trees back to Konoha is to go home.

Home, where Iruka is.  _ Fuck _ , he wobbles to a stop once he’s in the city limits of Konoha, pauses to catch his breath. From the tree he’s stopped in he heads down, and wanders the familiar, darkening streets back to his house.

Mao and Karin are in the kitchen; he can hear them talking when he walks in. Iruka, though, is in the living room, and when Kakashi slides the door open he looks up from a book.

_ You haven’t been to the hospital _ , Iruka signs after a moment to look Kakashi over, a small, tight smile on his lips as Kakashi shakes his head, collapses under the kotatsu.

He shifts down enough that he can place his head on Iruka’s lap, and the other man scoots back a little to accommodate him without ever looking up from his book. What the hell is going on, Kakashi wonders. Why was his first thought to go to Iruka despite the shitty stitches on his head and the importance of his mission? He has a vague feeling that he should know why, but then one of Iruka’s hands begins gently probing his hair and all thoughts fly out the proverbial window.

The hand pauses at the stitches, and though they burn when his fingers touch them the pain quickly leaves, and Kakashi can see far enough with his one eye to tell that Iruka is healing them, or at least numbing them.

“Aren’t you supposed to not use chakra?” Kakashi asks. Iruka rolls his eyes, keeps doing what he’s doing. That medic-imposed rule expired months before, once they were sure his chakra pathways were fine; Kakashi is just being petulant.

With some wrangling he gets his hands where Kakashi can see them, signs,  _ I think it’s justified. _

That earns a chuckle, and a sudden, overwhelming feeling of gratefulness towards Iruka. The learning curve has been sharp, but they all fit together pretty well, now. Kakashi rubs his nose in the kotatsu’s quilt, which smells delightfully of the same things Iruka does--tea, paper, and a hint of cinnamon, and Iruka’s fingers resume carding through his hair.

-

Perhaps the most telling thing is when Kakashi actually falls asleep on Iruka. It’s after another mission--he’s not wounded, and he actually managed to drag himself to the Hokage to report in before going home to collapse under the kotatsu. But he’s exhausted to the bone; three weeks of hunting down a missing-nin, then another frantic few days of little sleep and high speed travel to get back to Konoha.

The kids are over at the Inuzuka compound and Mao is at the hospital, if the note she left about starting dinner means anything. But Iruka is at his usual spot, under the kotatsu, writing. He looks up when Kakashi enters, face softening from concentration into a fond smile. Kakashi feels like his heart is melting from just that, but doesn’t think too much about it. Within minutes he’s also under the kotatsu, head on Iruka’s lap, hair being brushed by Iruka’s fingers.

Really, nobody should be surprised that he falls asleep, least of all him, but nonetheless when he wakes up the better part of an hour later he’s confused as all hell. Bisuke is flopped over his stomach, Pakkun and Uuhei tucked against his back. The other dogs are scattered around, and when he pushes himself up from Iruka’s (very, very comfortable) lap, he gets at least five side-eyes.

He stumbles out of the room because his clothes are sort of disgusting and he would like to take a shower, and he doesn’t want to bother Iruka when he actually looks busy. He’s been compiling his own research on seals and sealing jutsu into one document, and the work is actually so advanced that Kakashi doesn’t understand half of it. Iruka doesn’t even look up from his work, just keeps on writing.

Pakkun is the only one of his ninken to follow him, and that is in order to force Kakashi to shampoo him. Kakashi does as his dog wishes (the little bath-loving freak) before booting Pakkun out of the shower so he can clean himself. Once done, and a little more right in his head, Kakashi heads back out of his room to go and find food.

He starts dinner and tea, and while waiting feeds the dogs. That brings Iruka into the kitchen, and he sits at the small table and blearily watches Kakashi as he cooks. It’s become routine, and Kakashi is suddenly viscerally aware of how normal it is. A year and a half ago he would’ve killed someone over sharing a house with anyone; a year and a half ago he wouldn’t have damn well fallen asleep on one Umino Iruka.

-

He’s in the middle of slicing up potatoes when the realization hits, and he nearly slices through his thumb as his face flushes violently.

He’s in love with Umino Iruka.

What the  _ fuck _ .


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kakashi acquires more children, and makes a big mistake.

Winter comes and goes, and soon enough the Academy graduates another class and Iruka has been living at the Hatake house for over a year. Things between him and Kakashi are unspoken and ignored. Occasionally Mao tries to talk to Kakashi about it but he’s perfected the art of disappearing at less than a moment’s notice whenever he sees her about to mention Iruka.

Other than that, life is good. He gets notice that he’ll be testing another genin team, and he has a month off to compensate for all the missions he’s been thrown on. Not that it’s very good compensation, what with the genin and all, but he’s not complaining.

Nor is the rest of his mismatched family, but that’s only because they missed him cooking basically every meal for them. At least, that’s what he tells himself. You know, even as he spends the first two days basically sleeping on Iruka and being allowed to do that by Iruka. It goes unmentioned, and not just because Kakashi sharpens his knives in full view of the children and Mao.

With graduation comes a summer break for all of the other classes, so Kakashi is also back on babysitting duty. It isn’t as horrible as it previously was; Naruto has gained manners and Karin no longer yells everything. And Iruka takes any edge there would be off because he is Iruka and he is somehow perfect.

Fuck.

Okay, yeah, Kakashi has acknowledged that he has feelings for Iruka but that doesn’t mean he’s processed them or become alright with the fact that they exist. He’s spent his entire life trying to remove relationships; he doesn’t exactly want to start one.

So instead of doing that, Kakashi teaches Naruto and Karin some starter ninjutsu.

Mao and really the entire village are ready to kill him for that.

-

See, Karin and Naruto are friends with Sakura and Ino. Sakura and Naruto are pranksters right down to their bones. Ino and Karin are ride or die and don’t care about getting in trouble. Which means once Kakashi has taught Naruto and Karin how to walk on trees and water Sakura and Ino have learned, and then it’s a whole new spectacle to watch them deface the monument to the Hokages.

Kakashi is more proud than anything else.

-

Though he is paying for his pride, namely by making sure the kids don’t sneak out in the middle of the night to pull more pranks for the two weeks following what they refer to as the Monument Incident. It’s not like he’s a deep sleeper or has any problems waking up in the middle of the night, but what with also making sure the kids don’t destroy anything during the day it wears him down fairly quickly.

The night before he has the test for his pre-genin scheduled, he’s up around midnight to check on the kids. They went to bed late and are understandably deep asleep when he passes their rooms. Mao is still awake, getting ready to head for the hospital for a shift, and when he stops by to tell her that the kids are asleep she nods slowly.

“Ah, Kakashi?” she says, before he can get too far down the hall. “Could you check on Iruka? I think I heard him up a few minutes ago.”

There’s nothing suggestive in her tone, just mild concern, so Kakashi nods and follows his nose to find the other man.

Iruka is behind the house, sitting on the porch and staring up at the nearly full moon, his head resting on one of the support columns. Bisuke is on his lap, sleeping. 

Kakashi walks around so Iruka can see him, and there’s momentary surprise on the other man’s face.

_ Can’t sleep _ ? he signs to Iruka. Iruka slowly shakes his head, letting it rest back against the wooden column. Bisuke shifts on his lap, but doesn’t wake up.

Kakashi observes the other man for a moment, then leans down to pick his youngest ninken up.    
Bisuke still doesn’t wake, and Iruka looks at him with annoyance. “Come on,” Kakashi says, voice quiet in the still, chilly air.

Iruka complies, and somewhere along the few meters to the door their hands slip together.

The house is quiet other than the usual settling, everyone but the two of them tucked away in their beds. Kakashi leads them into his own room, formerly an unused room at the end of the house. It feels completely natural to lead Iruka over to the too-large futon and nudge him into it, tucking Bisuke down at the bottom of the quilt before laying down as well.

They aren’t close enough to be touching, but the bed is warmer with two people laying in it and a dog on the end. Kakashi finds himself matching his breathing to Iruka’s, and once he can tell that Iruka is asleep--breathing slow, heartbeat evened out--he turns to look at him.

It’s dark but the moon is bright enough through the small, still-dusty windows that he can see Iruka, the lines of his face, the scar across his nose, the swaddling of bandages peeking out from under his chin. Mao had said that Iruka would likely be mute for the rest of life due to the way the scar tissue formed, and Kakashi finds that he can’t remember what exactly Iruka sounds like. He closes his eyes and forces himself to fall asleep, but not before finding Iruka’s hand, and intertwining their little fingers.

-

Iruka must have touch-relayed luck or something, because the next day Kakashi passes his first genin team. The kids are not the best, two of them from civilian families, one a distant Inuzuka cousin, but they have teamwork and Kakashi grudgingly allows them to get the bells. Part of it is because of their teamwork, but part of it is also spite. He’s been out of Konoha for months on end on supposedly vital missions with nothing to show for it, and goddamn it he’s tired.

Plus, he wants to stay in Konoha, if he can. There used to be no reason for him to stay in the city, but with a menagerie living at his house and two children who he views as younger siblings in the Academy he’s begun to resent the long missions.

So two days after graduation, he had found himself slowly making his way to the Academy to meet his team. He was in no rush; he’d test them the next day, so he didn’t want to know too much about them in case like all of his other teams they failed.

And they exceeded his expectations. They’re something of a mismatched team. Hanako is very small for her age, but she has an affinity for taijutsu and ninjutsu. Mimi, on the other hand, is big and very good with genjutsu but pretty abysmal at taijutsu. Akio is right in between them in terms of size, but in terms of ability he is dead last. The one thing he really has going for him is his ninken, Kihada, who is rather large even though she hasn’t hit her major growth spurt. The most surprising thing about them, other than the mere fact they passed his test, was that they didn’t actually know each other other than names and faces before being assigned to Kakashi. They are all very different, but Kakashi finds himself liking all of them.

And, despite getting the bells from him, their skills don’t mesh together well. Hanako is all brute force, Mimi skilled with her genjutsu. Akio--Akio just simply does not like to fight.

Great! Pacifism is fine! But why did the kid sign up for the Academy and remain in the running for the whole two years? Hell, there’s an opportunity for every student to rescind their decision before and after their final exam, so even if their parents bullied them into becoming shinobi (a very rare occurrence) they would be able to get out. Akio is none of those things, and Kakashi is quite perplexed with what to do with him.

Hanako is simple, he has her learning katon and working on her genjutsu abilities so she won’t be helpless in a scrape. Mimi he sets in front of practice logs and has memorize taijutsu katas that complement her height and her frame; she’s a touch-type genjutsu user, anyway, so she needs to be good at taijutsu to be able to use her skills properly in a fight.

And Akio.

Kakashi did test them with smaller things after their primary test to get a feel for their skill levels, and Akio is dead last out of the three of them in nearly everything. He does have decent chakra control, but he has to in order to manage a ninken. That’s it, though, so Kakashi sets him to a whole rigorous routine designed to build up his physical and mental strength. A weak member of the team will put the rest of them in danger; Kakashi asks Gai for pointers when his best friend is not working his own new team into exhaustion.

-

It seems bizarre, that they both finally have genin teams. But, on the most positive of sides, it means that Kakashi can toss his kids into mock-battles with Gai’s team. Gai’s team usually wins through the intervention of Hyuuga Neji. Kakashi gets it, Neji was their class’s “genius” and for a reason; he’s  _ good _ . There is an aspect of his obsession with fate that disturbs Kakashi just a little, but Gai doesn’t seem too worried about it.

It’s interesting, though, to see the contrast between their teams. Gai’s team doesn’t have the same level of teamwork that Kakashi’s team does, but they have more specific skills than Kakashi’s team. Tenten has her weapons and her scrolls, Lee his taijutsu, and Neji the Byakugan. The only specialization Kakashi’s team has is Akio, with his ninken, but Akio can’t really hold up to one enemy shinobi, let alone three.

Another thing Kakashi has going for him is that his kids actually like each other, he guesses. Neji seems to look down on Lee a lot, and be indifferent to Tenten, which means sometimes their teamwork can get shoddy. Kakashi doesn’t really get that. He knows how powerful taijutsu specialists are--if he were to have a one-on-one spar with Gai he has no doubt he would lose, for all his tricks and abilities. Lee is nothing if not Gai’s disciple; he’ll likely be just as powerful, if not more than, his teacher. It’s good to see how they fight each other, though, to give them a variety of opponents.

It’s especially good because they are stuck doing D-rank missions. The kids are, at least, Kakashi just watches them and is mildly amused by how bored they are at all times. Part of him wants to throw them into C-ranks, but given how young they are and how they are still only genin, they’re only allowed to take one or two a month. Sparring with Gai’s team allows them to test their skills with someone who is not Kakashi, and therefore not as critical as he is about their progress. And, probably more importantly, it allows them to work off some of their frustrations with all of the horrible missions.

-

They’re on practice ground four and Kakashi is sitting with Gai in a tree, watching Tenten send out scroll after scroll of weaponry while Lee tries to avoid Mimi’s touch and genjutsu.

Their mock battle ends, for not the first time (to Kakashi’s pride), in a draw just as the clouds open up and begin pouring rain on them. Gai herds his team off for what is probably an hour-long motivational speech, and Kakashi leads his own team off like ducklings to somewhere that’s dry.

“Somewhere that’s dry” being his house, but it’s only because it’s close. They’ve never visited before and he never intended for them to, but he wants to talk through some of the maneuvers they pulled that afternoon and ways they could try and get around Neji and Team Gai’s teamwork.

They’re still soaked when they get to the house, and after looking at the pathetic looks on their faces Kakashi banishes them to go borrow dry (and not muddy) clothes from Karin and Naruto. Once dressed and thoroughly bowled over by Naruto and Karin, they follow Kakashi hesitantly into the living room and the kotatsu. There’s also a fire going in the fireplace; Kakashi sends a silent thanks to Mao for thinking ahead as Kihada flops down in front of it.

He finds a pen and paper, probably Iruka’s leftovers, and begins walking his team through their mock battle with Neji, Tenten, and Lee.

Mimi picks up on tactics quickly, but the other two need more explaining to understand the things he’s telling them. He’s in the middle of explaining why blindly aiming for the Byakugan’s blind spot is only a good tactic when you either have the ability to see chakra, as with the Sharingan or Byakugan, or when you’re skilled with weapons, like Tenten and unlike any of his kids, when the door opens and a familiar brunet head pokes in.

_ Are they staying for dinner? _ Iruka signs, smiling and waving at the kids when they turn around as one unit to stare at him.  _ Naruto insists on making curry _ .

Kakashi half-shrugs, says, “Might as well. It’s not like Naruto can poison anyone with his cooking anymore.”

Iruka’s eyes dance with laughter, and he nods to the kids again before closing the door and leaving them.

“Who is that?” Akio asks, eyes wide. “Is he a shinobi, too?”

“No, Iruka-san isn’t a shinobi. He lives here,” Kakashi says, and though his tone is quite final the kids look at each other, more than a little confused.

Kakashi gets through his tactics explanation without much more of a fuss, and leaves the kids in the living room for a moment to work up team plans for certain fighting maneuvers that Gai’s team tends to do. He pauses when he has closed the door behind him, listens to make sure they’re actually working.

And they’re not working, but that’s typical. “He was really cute,” Hanako is saying, and Akio makes a sound of agreement.

“I wonder who he is, he looks familiar somehow,” Akio adds.

Kakashi sends up another silent prayer of thanks, this time for Mimi, because she breaks into their gossip and says, “Ugh, shut up about him, we need to work on the problem Kakashi-sensei gave us. He said he would make us run laps if we didn’t.” The reminder elicits groans from the other two, but they quiet down.

Iruka is in the kitchen, supervising, while Naruto and Karin cook. “Hello, Kakashi-onii-san!” they chorus and can probably tell how proud his is of them when he gives each of them a hair-ruffling.

_ How are they doing? _ Iruka asks him, and from the curiosity on his face Kakashi can tell he’s not asking about the Uzumakis.

_ Getting better. They’re not going to be ready for the chuunin exams this year, but they’ve made great strides since I first began training them _ , Kakashi signs back. That way they aren’t interrupting Naruto and Karin’s talk of school, and the kids won’t be able to listen in, as they are wont to do.

_ I would have thought you would enter them in the exams, _ Iruka replies. Kakashi quirks and eyebrow, and Iruka elaborates,  _ You aren’t very patient. Or forgiving to them. _

Kakashi shrugs. It’s true, might as well accept his own shortcomings.  _ They aren’t ready _ , he reiterates,  _ that said, I should probably make sure they haven’t destroyed anything _ .

Iruka snorts, bumps his shoulder against Kakashi’s, and turns back to Naruto and Karin.

-

From there it is uphill. Mimi turns into the unofficial head of the three of them, the one to figure out their plans and tactics in battle. (Battle being catching Tora three times until Hanako nearly sets the cat on fire. They don’t have to do it after that.) Hanako hones her ninjutsu skills and becomes as proficient with long-distance battle as she is with hand-to-hand. Akio sees the most improvement; he and Kihada begin to work seamlessly, able to communicate with each other effortlessly and understand where Mimi and Hanako need them.

The first match of mock battle that they win against Team Gai makes Kakashi want to weep with pride. He never thought he would have a team, but now he does, and he wouldn’t wish for any different.

-

Almost a year after Kakashi was assigned his team, it is once again time for graduation at the Academy. Specifically, Karin and Naruto’s graduation.

The entire thing is extremely stressful. Kakashi can’t really fathom why because it doesn’t really affect him, what with him having his own team and not actually being related to the kids at all.

Nonetheless, it’s probably because Naruto, bless his kind, friendly soul, might not actually pass the exam.

What the fuck.

No child living in the Hatake household will fail their graduation exam from the Academy. The exam always includes a sit-down test, as well as a ninjutsu test, though both are different every year. Different questions, different basic jutsu.. Seeing how the kids only know approximately two jutsu by the time they graduate, odds are pretty good that it will be a bunshin no jutsu, and Naruto is abysmal at those. He eventually did master the henge, though not until Sakura beat him up for constantly changing into naked women.

His inability to produce a bunshin is actually something that is worrying; is it because the seal keeping the Kyuubi in him interferes with his own chakra systems, or is it unrelated? In either case Kakashi doesn’t know enough about the seal to know, and that’s where Iruka comes in.

Iruka has studied seals since his childhood; his mother and her family came from the Land of Whirlpools, much like Naruto’s family, and as such seals were what she used and what Iruka is skilled at. Iruka does know the seal, and hesitantly agrees to take a look at Naruto’s seal under the condition that the Hokage will not know. Kakashi readily agrees to that, and once it is explained to Naruto what they want to do, he also agrees. The annoyance of not being able to produce a bunshin has been the straw to break the camel’s back, in a sense.

Of course Naruto knows about the Kyuubi. Living with three other people with similar heritage who all can basically sniff out seals, he learned what exactly he was the container for only a few weeks after moving in. Naruto took that revelation with the same sort of attitude he approaches everything in life with: to make the Kyuubi his friend.

But the seal is what is problematic; it messes up Naruto’s ability to control small amounts of chakra and instead forces him to over-use chakra, in effect tiring him out quicker. Iruka only knows the basic setup of the seal, so he can’t fix it, but--

-

_ Could you rebuild his seal? _ Kakashi asks, when they’re sitting on the porch by themselves. Everyone else is asleep. Iruka looks at him with wide eyes.

_ I’ve not--  _ he restarts,  _ I’ve never _ \-- and finally,  _ I don’t know. _

Iruka knows Kakashi’s body language well enough to tell that he’s confused, and after huffing out a sigh and running a hand through his loose hair, the other man elaborates.  _ The seals used to contain bijuu are typically highly advanced, if not forbidden from general knowledge. I’m not sure if I know enough about any of those types of seals to construct one of them. _

_ Why not just make a new seal?  _ Kakashi asks, and Iruka looks at him with such fondness even as his shoulders make the little jumping movement that means that he’s laughing.

_ Because it would be enormously hard you idiot, _ Iruka signs, smiling broadly,  _ but, might as well try. _

Kakashi can’t really help himself; he pulls his mask down and pulls Iruka into a kiss.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Included is: genin, chuunin exams, chuunin, and zero regrets.

Oh, there’s Kurenai. Kakashi feels all of the sympathy for Kurenai. Her first team, and she gets not just Naruto, but also Karin and Sakura. Frankly, he doesn’t even know how the hell the Hokage put the kids into teams, because the three of them together doesn’t make much sense in literally any way. They do have teamwork, yes, but that’s because they’re absolute hellions.

Kakashi sends her a fruit basket. Karin and Naruto try to stop him but it’s too late; every time Kurenai sees him after that she at least flips him off, if not trying to discreetly murder him.

It overjoys Kakashi that he is now viewed as normal by most of his peers, even if it means that they start trying to send senbon into his visible eye.

-

And there’s Iruka.

Iruka, beautiful, kind Iruka, who went above and beyond and completely remade Naruto’s seal from the ground up. It’s more difficult to tamper with and Naruto holds the key to it, so once he begins to learn how to control the Kyuubi’s chakra he’ll have full access to it.

Kakashi will never regret kissing him, for that reason and for the fact that when he did it Iruka’s hands fisted in his shirt and when they finally pulled apart from each other he signed  _ God that took you forever.  _ Apparently Kakashi is much more predictable than he thinks. Apparently it’s obvious to everyone else, too, because when Anko is over visiting the week after the kiss while Iruka’s working on Naruto’s seal, she just knows.

So everyone views him as a normal person and now knows about his sex life, which is horrible.

Anyway, Iruka is good and reciprocates Kakashi’s feelings, which is even better and a little perplexing. He still is working on his seals; those have only increased since he did Naruto’s, because now he has experience with completely remaking jinchuuriki seals. The sheer level of his abilities is enough to surprise Kakashi at times, and he takes both Karin and Naruto under him to learn the basics of seals. After all, they all have affinities for it in their own ways.

-

Finally, there’s the chuunin exams. Kakashi feels fairly confident in submitting his team into it because they have made immense strides in the year and a half he’s been their teacher and they would probably also murder him in his sleep if he didn’t let them compete against Gai’s team in the exams. He doesn’t want to get murdered.

When the day comes for nominations he doesn’t hesitate to throw his team in. Gai is grinning at him from across the meeting hall and the Hokage already has the pinched look of a headache.

“Of the six remaining genin teams, those formed this year, are there nominations?” the old man asks, and Kakashi literally has to bite his tongue when Kurenai steps forward, next to Asuma and Ebisu and a woman named Shiki.

Fuck, Naruto and Sakura and Karin are  _ not _ ready for the chuunin exams. Compared to even his team, they’re babies in the realm of shinobi; they work well as a team, yes, but their skills are very lacking.

Kurenai sends him a dark but measured look from across the hall but he doesn’t say anything. “Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Karin, and Uzumaki Naruto are nominated for the chuunin exam,” she says, after Asuma has named the new generation of Ino-Shika-Cho as nominated.

Kakashi can’t help a silent sigh. At least the younger Uchiha didn’t get passed into a genin team, so that’s one less thing that they’ll have to worry about. He almost feels like a traitor for worrying more about Karin and Naruto and Sakura than his own team but, well, they’re going to need much more luck.

-

The exams start a week after the nominations are in. That’s just enough time for Mimi, Hanako, and Akio to polish up some last techniques and Kakashi to nearly lose sleep with mounting worry. Nobody else in their house is doing much better except for Naruto and Karin; they don’t seem to care very much about the exam. Kakashi chalks it up to them not really knowing much about the process. Sakura seems fairly hesitant, but Sakura is the type to research things thoroughly before doing them. And, according to the kids at least, Kurenai gave them a choice on showing up. Devious of her; if one of them decides not to, none of them will be able to.

The day of the first exam seems to release most of that tension, though. Through the extensive shinobi grapevine Kakashi learns that the first part is an exam given by Ibiki. At that point, he figures his kids are on their own. No amount of his worrying will save them from the combination of Ibiki and Anko.

And an explosive combination it is, though thankfully not literally. Kakashi is grateful he isn’t summoned to the Academy to deal with the aftermath of explosions. No, he’s at home, for once, with Mao, who took the day off, and Iruka.

No amount of placating will calm Iruka, despite how fine Kakashi feels with the whole thing. He gets it--Naruto is very like him, and he tends to be very protective about Karin and Naruto and Sakura. But it’s completely out of his hands and out of Kakashi’s hands and, hell, even out of Kurenai’s hands at that point. Only intervention from the Hokage would stop the exams, and that isn’t likely to happen.

So they sit around the house and hope that all of their kids will be okay. Mao takes the time to start in on a new batch of books on the chakra system and nerves, Kakashi takes it upon himself to reorganize the bookshelves (which have been doing nothing but accumulate more books on what seems like a daily basis), and Iruka sits on the couch, watches Kakashi, and stews. Not even the dogs are a distraction; Bisuke has been laying on his lap for at least an hour and has only received a couple of pats and pets. He almost looks offended whenever Kakashi looks over at them.

Finally Kakashi stops what he’s doing, leaves the books that aren’t put away for later, and throws himself onto the couch next to Iruka. That at least startles him, and it’s with some self-satisfaction on Kakashi’s part when Iruka slumps down against him.

_ They’re too young _ , he signs after a few moments.  _ They shouldn’t have to do this. _

“Well,” Kakashi says, pausing to collect his thoughts. “In this world they have to. I wish they didn’t; it’s not good for them.”

Iruka knows that’s true; so does Kakashi. They lived it. Iruka begins rubbing his face against Kakashi’s shoulder, worrying as he worries Kakashi’s shoulder. Being a shinobi is to live in a fucked system and a fucked world that only values a person as long as that person is useful. Lethal.

Kakashi buries his face in Iruka’s hair, inhales and presses a kiss there. Iruka’s outside the whole thing because he was maimed and tossed aside by it; of course he understands.

-

The first part of the exam finishes without a hitch, and the next day Kakashi sees his team and Kurenai’s off to the Forest of Death. It’s kind of funny how the kids don’t take the name of the place seriously, but they’ll learn. Oh, he has no doubt of that.

With them off in the forest for the next five days, it means Kakashi is free of all responsibilities. Since his team is competing he can’t be sent out on a mission, there isn’t anything that needs to be done on the administrative side, and even the house is in perfect order.

He has...absolutely no idea what to do with himself. There is nothing for him to do, short of spending all his time either training or reading and those two things get old very rapidly.

Kakashi finds himself doing those things the first two days, and then he admits that he gets bored very quickly and hunts Anko down to get an update on the teams the third day. He hasn’t yet been summoned to tell them they’ve passed, but he assumes they’re still in the running. His assumption is right; after he bribes Anko with fresh dango and a bottle of plum wine she pours them each a glass and shoves half of the (rather large) box of dangos into her mouth.

“Your babies are fine, Kakashi,” she says around the food, “all of them. God, you’re worse than Iruka about those kids. They’ll be  _ fine _ .”

He arches his eyebrow at her, and she rolls her eyes, swigs the wine. “Okay, Kurenai’s squad has had some close calls but they’re fairly close to the tower; they just need to find a scroll and they’ll be golden. Your kiddos I expect to be in in a couple hours. Now begone, I’m not supposed to tell you this stuff,” she swats him on the arm, steals his cup of wine and downs it, and belches right into his face.

That gives him a reason to roll his eyes, and he heads by the hospital to give Mao a thumbs up before returning to the house.

Iruka is at his usual place in the living room, poring over large sheets of paper with enlarged seal matrixes drawn on them. He doesn’t look up from the papers but he does scoot over a little, so Kakashi can sit down next to him.

Kakashi sits down and begins to say, “I talked to Anko,” when the summoning comes. Damn, not even an hour since he talked to Anko and they apparently have made it. Or maybe they got impatient; oh, that would be annoying. He hopes he taught them better than that

-

The smoke clears and Kakashi is thankful he doesn’t have to knock his kids out and fail them. The tower in the middle of the Forest of Death has been cleaned out, but it still smells of musty swamp water and rodents, and his team is standing in front of him, looking confused.

“Yo,” Kakashi says.

“Kakashi-sensei!” Hanako yells, and Kihada begins running in circles. The dog is plastered up to her haunches in mud, and the kids don’t look to have fared much better.

“I see you all have made it to the tower, and with your scrolls,” he says, stepping off said scrolls. He’s going to be sitting on on the preliminaries with all of the other jounin teachers, and it’s time for advice for his kids. Quickly, though, the summoning has a timer.

Mimi and Akio roll up the scrolls as quickly as they can, and they all follow Kakashi into one of the waiting rooms off of the main chamber that they summoned him in.

“The next round will be held in this building, once everyone has arrived two days from now. I would suggest you take the time to train together; I can’t tell you more about the rest of the test except for that. Rest up and get ready, it’s going to be difficult,” he says, and with a smile for them, the summons releases and he disappears.

-

Iruka doesn’t look up as he had before, but when Kakashi tucks himself under the table and curls around him he pats Kakashi’s head, absently.

“Talked to Anko,” Kakashi finally finishes, “my team has made it to the tower; she said Naruto and Karin and Sakura hadn’t yet been disqualified.”

Iruka nods, begins to run his hand through Kakashi’s hair. Kakashi feels like he’s melting, and he tries to keep enough control over himself to not purr. It has happened before.

They pass the rest of the afternoon like that, together under the kotatsu. Iruka does get work done; a lot of it, if the stack of papers nearly doubled in size is any indication. He abandons Kakashi to put his things away around the same time Mao gets back from her twelve hour shift. She peeks in to send a questioning look Kakashi’s way, and he reports, “No news.”

“Your kids?” she asks, pulling her hair out of the twin buns it had been pinned in.

He holds a thumb up, and she smiles. “Good, they’ve worked hard. You making dinner?”

“Yes,” he says. Homemade yakisoba. The kids are going to be furious that he made it while they were in the middle of the exam.

She give him a thumbs up, and heads off. “I’m taking a bath,” Mao calls back after her, “if I don’t come out in an hour assume I’ve drowned.”

“Can do,” Kakashi says. He remains under the kotatsu for a few minutes, then heaves himself up to go do as he said and start dinner.

The dogs are piled and sleeping around the small kitchen table, so Kakashi nudges them awake and sends them to go find Iruka while he pulls out the big griddle. They even have good pork from the butcher’s, and he separates it apart, leaving some for their dinner and most of it for the dogs.

Iruka appears while he’s frying the vegetables, takes the pork for the dogs and slices it before pulling out another pan and cooking it. Working with and around Iruka in the kitchen feels so natural, a testament to the time they’ve spent together.

Dinner is a quick affair, what with how tired Mao is and how hungry they all are. Kakashi is washing up the dishes afterward when a knock sounds on the nearest door, the one that goes out to the garden.

“Yes?” he sticks his head out, sees Kurenai standing there.

“The kids made it to the tower,” she says, looking somewhat smug but also exhausted. “They’re all fine; Anko mentioned maybe closing the tower tomorrow when the last teams come in.”

“We’ll know if she does,” Kakashi says, and Kurenai nods. “Thanks.”

She affords him a halfhearted wave before body flickering away.

He finishes up the dishes before heading back to tell Mao that her daughter and the others have made it; she is half asleep when he knocks on her door and does nothing nod before flopping into her futon. He closes her door and goes around to douse all the lights that are still on before heading to his bedroom, where Iruka and all of the dogs are.

The dogs disperse when he arrives, heading to their own favorite sleeping spots around the house. Bisuke stays, flopped on Iruka’s lap, but he moves down to the base of the futon when Kakashi changes and climbs into the bed.

“Naruto, Karin and Sakura made it,” Kakashi says, wrapping his arms around Iruka.

_ That’s good, _ Iruka signs, yawning. He nuzzles against Kakashi’s forehead before pulling back to sign,  _ you’ll be watching the prelims? _

“Yeah, Anko said that teachers are encouraged to be there,” he says, “in case.”

Iruka doesn’t say anything further, but does look at him with his eyebrows pinched together.

“They’ll be fine, ‘ruka,” Kakashi says. Damn, he hopes that even he can believe that.

-

The preliminaries start not the next day, but the day after that at the ass crack of dawn. They’re still in the tower that serves as the center of the Forest of Death, moved into large ground-floor chamber. Only one person withdraws from the preliminaries, and it’s with no small amount of pride that Kakashi watches his team and his kids standing in lines, looking tired but ready for what’s coming.

Well, maybe not completely ready, but at least ready to deal with what’s coming. They definitely aren’t expecting Anko to announce that they’ll be thrown into random matches to try and eliminate half of the genin. If not more; usually the qualifiers number about a third of how many have made it this year. That’s even with Kusagakure having withdrawn their entrants; there’s only a handful of Suna shinobi, and surprisingly the Raikage even sent a couple squads of genin. Obviously they can’t completely trust the foreign shinobi, but it says a lot for their relationships with the other countries that they sent shinobi.

-

The first match is between two shinobi Kakashi doesn’t know; one from Sunagakure, the other from Kumogakure. The Kumo shinobi wins pretty spectacularly, and Kakashi is highly interested in the lightning ninjutsu the young man uses. Then the Konoha shinobi start in; Sakura and Ino are pitted against each other, Sakura barely scraping by with a win.

Lee goes next, against a red-haired boy from Suna who manipulates sand as if it’s an extension of him. He loses, much to Gai’s audible chagrin, but he’s not badly injured in the fight and insists on returning to the mezzanine to watch Tenten fight one of the Kumo shinobi. Tenten wins, by a hair as Sakura had, and then it’s Akio and Kihada’s turn.

In a surprising twist, his opponent is his own third cousin, Kiba. Kihada is almost five times the size of Akamaru, but Akio is hesitant at first to fight against the son of the clan leader, at least until Akamaru nearly marks him with literal piss. Then, oh, then, Akio steps up and all but destroys Kiba and Akamaru in three minutes flat. It’s the fastest match of the day, in fact.

Hanako wins against the older Hyuuga sister, Hinata, and is followed by Neji scoring a win against one of the other Suna shinobi. Naruto fights a Konoha genin that Kakashi doesn’t know and wins; Karin loses against the Aburame heir, Shino.

The list whittles further and further down until only two are left; Mimi and a young woman with a shock of red hair from Kumogakure. Yikes, a kenjutsu user against Mimi’s close-range genjutsu style. Kakashi honestly can’t think of a worse matchup for her.

But Mimi has always tended to surprise him, and this fight is no different. The Kumo shinobi uses a style of kenjutsu that Kakashi has seen before, specific to only a handful of Kumogakure shinobi. It’s close-range and fast, but Mimi keeps up somehow, and Kakashi knows her mind is working to find over corrections and pauses to exploit. 

Her movements are even faster than the Kumo shinobi’s; she whisks some weighted chakra wire out of her weapons pouch and manages to lasso the Kumo shinobi around her sword arm. Then she dives in and presses her hand to the other young woman’s forehead, trapping her in genjutsu.

Kakashi gives Mimi a thumbs up when Hayate, the announcer, gives the win to her. He doesn’t have a chance to talk to his kids again that day, because Anko has them draw names and then sends everyone to get checked out by medic-nin. The final part of the exam is scheduled for a month away; plenty of time for Kakashi to talk with and train his team even more. He wants to work on Akio’s hesitation and Hanako’s speed; Mimi is doing pretty well on her own, and he would prefer to find her someone with touch-type genjutsu to mentor her further with that.

Before leaving, they draw numbers for placement in the final exam, another round of one on one fights. Akio is going to fight Tenten, Mimi to fight Sakura, and Hanako to fight the Kumo shinobi who had one the first round.

Kakashi’s a little worried, to say the least.

-

He’s been teaching all three kids katon because they all have shown the ability to use fire chakra, but he’s never actually tested their chakra to see what primary affinities they have. So the first thing he does two days from the end of the preliminaries, once his kids have had time to rest up and heal up any wounds they might’ve had, is give them each a piece of chakra conducting paper.

Mimi’s burns up in an instant; Akio’s gets soggy after a few minutes of his intense concentration; Hanako’s splits in half as neatly as if it has been cut apart by scissors.

Well. That’ll make the even up her fighting odds just a little bit.

Mimi he sets to practice with longer-distance fighting, dragging Tenzou out to help her with that. Akio is a bit of a dilemma; Kakashi does know a lot of water-type ninjutsu and techniques, but there’s a higher proportion of suiton users in Konoha than fuuton users, so he doesn’t exactly want to neglect Hanako to train Akio.

His problem is solved completely independently of him, though. Mao, apparently, has an affinity with wind as well, and she gladly consents to training Hanako if Kakashi can successfully force Karin and Naruto to clean their rooms. Kakashi doesn’t even hesitate to use genjutsu; really, it’s the easiest way to get Naruto and Karin to clean.

Mao holds up her end of the bargain, and works Hanako damned hard; they end up bunking the young woman in an extra room at the Hatake house because she’s usually too tired to make the trip all the way across the village back to her mom’s apartment. With Hanako taken care of, it means that Kakashi can train Akio one on one.

-

Akio is still the smallest member of Kakashi’s team, but over the year and eight months they’ve spent together he has made many strides to get better. But as his fight with Kiba had shown Kakashi and all of the other genin, he hesitates. Admittedly it was worse with Kiba, because Kiba is related to him, but his future opponents no doubt saw it and plan to exploit it. And it’s made worse by Kihada; she follows Akio’s lead and relies on him to judge how to face a fight, and the hesitation leaves her open as well.

So it’s not just training to teach him water techniques, it’s also to beat the hesitation out of him. If Kakashi can manage it. He likes to hope that he’s evolved enough as a teacher to be able to do such a thing.

-

And yet, by the end of the first week Kakashi’s ready to admit defeat. Akio just doesn’t like getting into a fight if he thinks he can avoid it, and Kakashi is finding it immensely difficult to tell him that it’s sometimes unavoidable and sometimes better to fight than avoid fighting. He tries to translate his woes to Mao and Iruka but they don’t seem to understand what he’s trying to teach Akio.

Finally, both confused and interested, Iruka follows him to the practice ground reserved for his team. Tenzou and Mimi are both there, meditating, and Akio is sitting against one of the practice logs finger-grooming Kihada. Kakashi hates how discouraged they both look, but the discouragement turns to a confused stare at Iruka when he and Kakashi walk up.

Kakashi doesn’t even bother explaining Iruka’s presence because he doesn’t even really know why Iruka’s there. He just figures that Iruka wants to figure out what’s wrong with Akio on his own and is happy to let him do whatever.

Until “whatever” turns out to be putting a hand on Kakashi’s arm to stop him when he and Akio are getting ready to do a warmup spar.  _ I have an idea,  _ Iruka signs rapid-fire to Kakashi, so Kakashi steps back and lets him do whatever he’s going to do.

Which turns out to be trap Kihada in a three-layer barrier box that she can’t get out of. Akio makes a noise of indignation while Iruka flickers over to sit on top of the box holding Kihada, signs to Kakashi  _ Now, go. _

Despite not really knowing how Iruka thought of that, the tactic ends up working pretty well. It seems that most of Akio’s hesitation to fight is because he doesn’t want Kihada to end up being harmed, but the entire feeling ends up turning into a vicious circle because his hesitation leaves the both of them open to attacks. Once Kihada is taken out of the equation, he has no reservations about fighting.

It serves as a harsh reminder of the fact that Iruka wanted to be a teacher. Of course he knows how to deal with these things; he’s always watching others and trying to help them. He’s even willing to help Kakashi’s team, the kids that still get weirded out when they see him around the Hatake house and speculate on why he lives there.

Kakashi resolves to take them out and tell them that, tell them the little of Iruka’s story that he feels he can tell.

But first, he needs to get Akio and Kihada whipped into shape.

-

Training takes up so much of their time that by the week of the final segment of the exam, Kakashi has all but forgotten that there is an exam. The kids are faring no better; Akio starts staying over at the Hatake house, and Mimi begins camping out in the practice field. They are all so intensely focused that, two days before the final exam, when Mao tells Hanako that they’re going to take a day off before finishing up training before the day of the exam, Hanako actually asks her what exam.

Kakashi decides that that means they all need a couple days of a break. The kids need to be in top shape for their fights and working them to exhaustion won’t help them on that front.

So he thanks Tenzou for spending time training Mimi (and buys him three dozen vouchers for free meals at various places around Konoha) packs up Akio, Kihana and Mimi, and drags them all to the Hatake house for some relaxation.

-

The day of the final part of the exam dawns bright and too damn early, in Kakashi’s opinion. Maybe it’s because he went to sleep only a couple hours before. Maybe it’s because he currently has Iruka’s arms wrapped around him and Iruka sleeping half on top of him.

In either case, he doesn’t want to get up. He’s sore from sitting on the flagstones of the front courtyard for six hours the previous day, watching Mao and Hanako polish up a wind shuriken technique. She has a handful of semi-decent fuuton techniques she can use now, and Kakashi can honestly believe that she has a chance at winning her fight.

Kakashi gently unwinds Iruka’s arms and moves him off so he can get out of their futon. Bisuke, Pakkun, and Akino, who had snuck in to sleep with them during the night, are gone.

He manages to get the quilt off him before Iruka’s arms snake back out and drag him back under the covers, back into the warmth. Kakashi really wants to complain, but the air in the mornings is beginning to get chill and Iruka is always warm. But, still, he needs to get up because the fights start early and his team slept over and good god he does not want them to be late.

“‘ruka, I need to get up,” he says, trying to turn his head so he can see Iruka’s face. It’s impossible anyway bc Iruka has his face buried in Kakashi’s back.

_ You’re not going to be late if you stay for a bit longer, _ Iruka traces the shinobi symbols onto Kakashi’s hand. It’s a...useful system, for when they’re in bed.

And, well, he’s not wrong.

-

They aren’t late. They aren’t late because they squeak into the stadium five minutes before Naruto is set to start his match against Neji. Neji looks intensely pissed off; Gai merely bellows out a laugh and welcomes every single member of Kakashi’s entourage, which includes Kurenai’s team, Mao and one of her close medic friends, and Iruka, who is still bleary-eyed.

They manage to find seats to watch the matches, helpfully losing over half of their number, and Iruka promptly leans against Kakashi and falls back asleep. 

It is the most endearing thing that Iruka has ever done and Kakashi has to fight off the feeling that he’s going to spontaneously combust while Hayate announces the first fight. It doesn’t help that Karin is sitting right next to him and asking him all sorts of questions about what he taught his team and what tactics they’ll be using, and that he’s trying to focus on Naruto.

Naruto, who starts feeding in a little of the Kyuubi’s chakra and ends up half-blinding Neji when the other activates his Byakugan. He tries to nudge Iruka awake so he can appreciate what his handiwork has enabled, but Iruka is out like a fucking light.

Oh well, he wakes up before Naruto punches Neji out, which makes everything fine.

-

Akio is the first of Kakashi’s team to go, and he does relatively well. Admittedly, he’s completely screwed as soon as Tenten uses a doton in tandem with an overhead attack, but he tries and he doesn’t hesitate and that is what counts above all. Plus, if Kakashi was being honest, he really expected Akio to lose his round; both he and Hanako have difficult opponents.

On the other hand, Mimi is fighting Sakura, and as much as Sakura has improved--particularly with her strength and speed--she is still no match for for Mimi’s experience or the fact that she uses taijutsu so fast that Lee has problems when he’s wearing his weights. Kakashi has to give it to her, though, Sakura holds on for nearly ten minutes before she taps out. It makes him doubly proud that she lasted that long resisting Mimi’s genjutsu, but then again Sakura also uses genjutsu and is fairly skilled with it.

She joins them in the stands after being looked over by the medics, sitting half on Karin’s chair and half on Karin’s lap because there are no free seats. 

The next rounds progress smoothly. Hanako loses her fight by a hair and has to be carted off the field (shouting angrily all the time). He goes to check on her and once he ensures she’s on her way to the hospital and that her mother will meet her there, he heads back to the stands.

The next fight is underway; he doesn’t pay much attention to it, instead trying to keep Iruka from falling asleep on him again. The first round of fights ends quickly after that, and they’re down from sixteen entrants to seven, after one of the other Konoha entrants withdraws.

After that they have a break so the field monitors can rework the matchups and the entrants can get a bit of a rest before the next round starts. Kakashi heads to the hospital to get an update on Hanako (alive, fine, pissed as all hell) and pick Akio up from the hospital. He wasn’t injured, but they wanted to watch him for a couple hours to make sure he didn’t have a concussion. He doesn’t, and Kihada is fine, so they join what Gai has been calling the “Hatake squad” in the stands to cheer on Mimi and Naruto.

Mostly Mimi, though, because Naruto loses his next round against Shino and joins them in the stands, itching at the bites left by Shino’s beetles. 

Kakashi is so wrapped up in chaperoning that he nearly misses the next two matches; Mimi wins the next one, against one of the Sunagakure shinobi. The Kumo shinobi wins as well. Shino is by no means weak, but with his bugs against the Kumo shinobi’s lightning he doesn’t really stand much of a chance. That just leaves the Kumo shinobi and Mimi, and Kakashi is more than a little terrified. Hanako had the best chance out of his team to defeat the lightning, and with Mimi relying mostly on close-quarters combat, she doesn’t stand much of a chance. Both of them are lagging, anyway, and when they face each other in front of Hayate, Mimi looks up at the stands, to where Kakashi and the rest are sitting.

Hayate is saying, “The final fight will begin--” when Mimi raises her hand.

“I forfeit,” she says, when Hayate’s attention is on her. A collective groan comes from most of the people in the stands once Hayate communicates that in a louder voice, but then everything is quickly shut down. It’s rather late in the day, and the official ceremony to instate the new chuunin will be three days after.

Kakashi isn’t complaining, he’s had rather enough of watching children fight each other and would really like to go back to the house and his and Iruka’s large, warm bed.

That doesn’t happen.

No, they pick up Mimi and go visit Hanako in the hospital, where she has to stay overnight so the medics can ensure that the lightning didn’t damage any of her nerves. Then they drop Mimi off at her house, where her parents are waiting (being civilians and running their own convenience store, they couldn’t take the day off) before heading back to the Hatake house.

_ Then _ everyone needs to be fed and Kihada needs good brushing, if not a bath. Finally,  _ finally _ , at nearly midnight Kakashi allows Iruka to lead him back to their shared bedroom where they are both too tired to do much of anything other than change their clothes and crawl into bed.

“Everyone did good,” Kakashi says, yawns.

_ You’re a good teacher _ , Iruka writes on his palm, before pulling him close.

-

The next three days are actually relaxing, which is almost shocking enough to kill Kakashi’s team. Hanako is released from the hospital the morning after the final stage, and together the three of them lay in Kakashi’s living room and don’t talk or do much of anything. Eventually, through a lot of persistence and drooling, Kakashi’s ninken get them outside to at least lay in the sun.

The Hatake household takes the opportunity to clean up the house a little, Naruto and Karin pitching in mostly because Sakura looks very disapprovingly at them if they don’t. And Sakura is basically part of the family, anyway, so Kakashi welcomes her help. After much prodding and poking from the ninken, Hanako, Mimi and Akio also help, and Kakashi decides that, since his savings has rebounded and he’s feeling generous, he’ll take everyone out to dinner.

It’s a miracle they don’t raze the barbeque place. Kakashi would regret it but he’s really past the point of caring, so he just tips very well and promises to never bring all of those people with him again.

The next two days, once they are done cleaning, are two of the most boring days of Kakashi’s life. He doesn’t particularly want to train his team, because they’re still recovering from the exam and deserve a few days off, but at the same time he is beginning to get cabin fever. The kids are already in the throes of it, even Naruto and Karin, so finally Kakashi gives each of them a dog and a different path around Konoha and tells them all to be back in four hours and not interact with each other if they cross paths.

That turns out to be the best idea he’s had in his entire life; the house is quiet for the afternoon, he and Iruka can relax and not look after the children, and Mao gets to damn well take a nap.

-

Nearly the entire population of Konoha, as well as delegations from Sunagakure and Kumogakure, are in attendance at the ceremony. All of the genin entrants are milling about in the front and Kakashi can almost see Iruka from where he’s standing next to Mimi. They’re all fidgety--understandably--and when the Hokage, Raikage, and Kazekage come out onto the roof of the Hokage Tower everything goes still and silent.

“We thank our allies Kumogakure and Sunagakure for submitting entrants to this year's chuunin exams, and we thank all others from the smaller villages who attended as well,” the Hokage begins. It’s the same speech every year and for every elevation ceremony, so Kakashi tunes out until they begin announcing names.

“To be elevated to the rank of chuunin, from Konohagakure and the Land of Fire,” the Hokage actually pulls a piece of paper out of one of his massive sleeves and reads it off. Kakashi has a list of three names in his head and when each of them is announced, one by one, he feels more and more like he needs to punch the air in triumph, or something.

Akio is crying and holding Kihada like she’s an oversized doll. Mimi has her arms around her teammate’s necks and half-yelling half-crying as well. Hanako is blankly staring at the Hokage, her mouth agape.

Kakashi pats each of them on the head, and when they are all looking at him he affords them a wide smile, and says, “I’m proud of you!”

-

They celebrate by going out for barbeque. Again. Kakashi bribes the owner and threatens to trap Karin and Naruto under genjutsu if they don’t behave.

Kakashi feels like he’s floating. It is the most contented he thinks he has been since he kissed Iruka the year before, and part of him almost suspects that something terrible is going to happen to bring his whole mood down. But before he knows it they’re back home and Iruka is once again wrapped around him.

The terrible never comes, and he falls asleep with his face tucked against Iruka’s neck, Bisuke and Pakkun warm on their feet.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi hasn't seen Jiraiya for years, and he feels like there's a reason for that.

Three weeks after the exams and full elevation of his team to chuunin, Kakashi is called into the Hokage’s office at three in the morning.

The fact that it’s three in the morning is enough to piss him off, because Kakashi was warm and comfortable in bed,  _ thank you very much _ , and Iruka had tried to grab onto him to prevent him from leaving. Having to pry Iruka’s hands off him is something that Kakashi has never had to do and never wants to repeat.

Then, oh,  _ then _ , he is informed that he’s being sent out to track down a cell of missing nin from Konoha who were reported to be in the Land of Lightning. Alone.

That takes the goddamn cake, and Kakashi has to repeat “don’t burn down the Hokage Tower” to himself ad nauseam until the statement actually sticks. Kakashi is frankly a little furious at the whole thing. Yes, his entire team passed the exams and Hanako is being considered for promotion to jounin, but damn it he’s still assigned as their squad leader until they’ve been reassigned and he shouldn’t be given any solo missions, especially not any S-ranks.

He’s not the only one pissed off; Mimi and Akio have been complaining, loudly, to anyone who will feign listening, that they still need someone to coordinate their training and that they should be sent on missions with Kakashi.

The first part is mostly bullshit but the second is true. However, no amount of complaining stops the Hokage from sending Kakashi to the Land of Lightning.

At least the weather is nice, if sweltering heat and humidity can be considered nice. Kakashi is so done with everything by the time he makes it to the Land of Lightning, he doesn’t even want to finish the mission. The thought of being home and enjoying the more temperate heat of Konoha is much more appealing than slaughtering a cell of missing-nin and any other people that they might have passed information about Konoha to. God, he’s getting too damn old for all of this.

He’s got a whole host of mosquito bites on his bare skin, his pants fucking chafe like hell, and he’s fairly sure his face is going to have three different levels of tan by the time he even locates the missing-nin; killing them is easy, as it always is, and finally there’s just one left that he can get the information he needs out of.

The information is not good; it seems that they sold information to Kumogakure agents and apparently shinobi connected to the Land of Grass, information given to them by agents from Konoha. Given that the Land of Grass is one of the suspected places for Orochimaru to have made his hideout, it’s too big for Kakashi to deal with simply. On the other hand, at least he gets to head back to Konoha.

-

Heading back to Konoha is followed by only two days of rest and then heading back out of Konoha. On the positive, Kakashi has his team with him, as well as Gai and his team. On the negative, they’re heading to the Land of Grass. Kakashi considers it somewhat of a blessing that they’re at least missing the Hokage’s long needed weeding out of Danzo and Root. They’ll have to deal with the fall-out, but that would take months, if not years to deal with anyway.

The trip to the Land of Grass is arduous, weaving them through the mountains north of Konoha. It isn’t as miserably hot as the Land of Lightning, but it’s hard going, and despite that they have to keep a fast pace. Orochimaru, if he is indeed in the Land of Grass, could be selling information about Konoha to anyone and everyone. Hell, Kakashi wouldn’t put it past him to plan an attack on Konoha on his own. It doesn’t do to underestimate one of Konoha’s three legendary Sannin.

Hence the presence of Gai and his team. Neji is being considered for jounin promotion just like Mimi, and honestly it’s a relief to just have  _ Gai _ there to back him up. The other kids can’t be underestimated either. But their goal isn’t to take Orochimaru down, per se, it’s to judge if the man is really in the Land of Grass, and if he is, if he is sending the information about Konoha along to others.

If he is they are supposed to engage and kill him. If he isn’t, they’re supposed to let him be.

Kakashi isn’t the only one who feels bad about the entire thing. Anko nearly wounded the Hokage by herself when she heard the news, and Ibiki was of a similar mindset. Tenzou, though, out of all of them, had seemed deathly calm during that particular meeting. Only when they all had left did a chuunin come in and tell the Hokage about the tree roots that had taken over the archive rooms beneath his office.

Kakashi desperately hopes they find evidence of Orochimaru selling Konoha’s secrets. He was unable to take the chance and kill the man before; he would love to finish the job now.

-

If Kakashi wasn’t in love with Iruka he would probably marry Gai, because Gai is his best friend and a literal powerhouse who single-handedly demolished most of the shinobi in Orochimaru’s hideout. It was amazing. Kakashi wants to commemorate it somehow. Neji and Lee did help out, yes, but most of it was Gai.

Orochimaru, though, that was Akio and Kakashi. Their ninken made the fight surprisingly short, but then again Orochimaru seems sickly when they find him and his lackey, Kabuto or whatever his name is. It’s almost disappointing, to see one of the Sannin putting up so weak a fight, but really Kakashi can’t complain; Akio and Kihada are out of commission after it, and Kakashi is only still standing because he always has a reserve of chakra.

Mimi, Tenten, and Hanako take care of Kabuto, who managed to mess Hanako up pretty good before Mimi trapped him in genjutsu and Tenten nearly took his head off. Kakashi finished taking his head of, just in case, and then set Tenten to sealing the bodies in scrolls. Gai would need to be carried back to Konoha, as would Hanako, Akio and Kihada, the last two at least until Akio recovered enough chakra.

The downside, Kakashi considers, of Akio being their lone medic-nin. Neji would likely be good at it, what with the Byakugan; he ought to mention that to Gai. You know, when Gai is conscious again.

They head back to Konoha, wounded but victorious.

-

They are intercepted a day away from Konoha by a team of Anbu led by Tenzou. The masked figures are mostly silent, but as soon as they stop for a quick break Tenzou pulls Kakashi aside for a silent conversation.

_ Bad news _ , is the first thing he signs. Inwardly, Kakashi groans. Of course. Nothing could just go right for once.

_ Danzo? _ Kakashi signs back.

Tenzou nods,  _ We ambushed them but it was a fierce battle. The Hokage was badly wounded. He is in the hospital. Doesn’t look good. _

“Shit,” Kakashi mutters, and he can hear Tenzou sigh. Might as well share information of his own. “Orochimaru and all others at the Land of Grass location were dealt with. We have information on the connections he had been cultivating, as well as locations of his other hideouts.”

“Bodies?” Tenzou asks, keeping quiet so none of the others hear their interaction.

“Tenten sealed them for the journey,” Kakashi replies.

Tenzou thinks for a second, and nods. “We should make it back to the village in a couple of hours; Shikaku, Inoichi, and Ibiki will be meeting us in the Tower.”

“Gai and Hanako are badly injured, but the rest of us are fine,” Kakashi says. “We’ll make good time.”

-

True to Tenzou’s word, Inoichi, Shikaku and Ibiki are in the Hokage’s office, talking in hushed tones while a barrier team mills around them. Kakashi dismisses his team and Gai’s to go get checked over at the hospital after relieving Tenten of the scrolls containing the information and bodies.

The barrier team wastes no time in putting up an interception barrier so that nobody can listen in to what is said. Kakashi wastes no time either. He hands the scrolls containing Orochimaru and Kabuto’s bodies to Inoichi, the scroll of information to Shikaku. As head of the jounin he is looked to as the leader of the village in times of crisis, and frankly Kakashi is sort of glad to not have to deal with the lingering problem of Orochimaru on his own.

“We have made contact with Jiraiya,” Shikaku says after breaking the seal on the scroll. “The council wishes for him to find Senju Tsunade to try and heal the Hokage.”

Ibiki’s face is bleak when he adds, “Likely she won’t be able to do much, even if he can find her.”

“That bad?” Kakashi asks, and the three other men grimly nod.

“Danzou had been transplanting Sharingan he obtained into his arm; it was a miracle that the Hokage was even able to subdue him, but the Uchiha were a notable help. The council will have no reason to put anymore restrictions on them; hell, with how they were able to help they should have all the restrictions taken off of them,” Inoichi says. Shikaku frowns but nods.

“Where do you need me?” Kakashi asks. He knows that it’s not time to rest, despite his probably vain hope to stay home, with his family and his team.

“Here in Konoha, for the time being,” Shikaku answers. His eyes flick down to the scroll. “We aren’t stretched thin enough to not deal with these right now, but I want you here. You have knowledge of Danzo and Orochimaru, and we will need both in the coming days.”

Kakashi isn’t even ashamed to admit that his shoulders sag with relief. He’s goddamn exhausted. “Understood.”

“Make sure to swing by the hospital,” Inoichi adds, collecting his scrolls and bestowing a dark glower upon Kakashi. God, he’s become infamous for his aversion to the place. “And see that your team as well as Gai’s know that you won’t be heading out soon.”

Kakashi nods one last time, and as soon as the barrier is down he flickers away to the hospital, not annoyed at all.

-

Everyone is at the house when he gets there, including his own team as well as Tenten and Ino. He heads right to the living room, where Akio and Mimi are sitting with Kihada, Tenten and Iruka.

“We’re on break for now,” Kakashi says to them in lieu of a welcome or hello. “Tenten, you’ll tell your teammates?”

She nods, leans forward and says, “Gai-sensei is doing alright; he just has bad chakra exhaustion and overextended himself. They said he’d be out of the hospital in a few days.”

Relief washes over Kakashi at that. Gai is not the type of person to be sidelined.

“What about the information we found?” Mimi says, raising her hand as if they are in class and she’s answering a question.

“It’s being dealt with; there’s a lot going on right now,” Kakashi says. “But we’ll be in Konoha until further notice. How’s Hanako?” he asks, to change the topic.

The kids don’t even realize what he’s done, but Iruka catches his eye and discreetly signs,  _ Glad you’re back. _

-

Jiraiya arrives in Konoha with little fanfare two days after that. Kakashi is equal parts mortified and thankful that he came; he hasn’t seen his much older cousin for years, but he knows that if anyone can find Tsunade it is Jiraiya.

The mortification is well-placed; as soon as Jiraiya appears in Konoha he appears, with much fanfare and atop a toad (when the hell did he even do the stupid makeup?) on Kakashi’s front porch. Kakashi takes one look at him and slams the door shut.

“Isn’t that the legendary Sannin, Jiraiya?” Karin asks, trying to force her way around him to get a peek out of the door. “Does he always look so stupid?”

“Did you see the frog he was standing on?” Naruto focuses on, blabbering in his usual manner and waving his arms rapidly in front of Kakashi’s face, “That’s so cool! Can I get a frog like that?”

“Uh, Kakashi, why is the Sannin Jiraiya here at your house?” Sakura asks hesitantly from the other end of the entrance hall.

Good god, no, he doesn’t want to deal with this. “He’s my cousin,” he finds himself saying anyway, and after that everything goes to hell. Jiraiya knocks down the door with full force and traps Kakashi in the tightest, most embarrassing hug he has ever received from anyone including Gai. Naruto jumps on top of the frog and starts yelling at it about getting a frog of his own while Sakura bodily grabs Karin and flees into the house.

“You are paying for the door,” Kakashi wheezes out, while Jiraiya rubs their faces together like they’re goddamn cats or something.

“Anything for you, my precious baby cousin!” Jiraiya crows.

-

That’s how Jiraiya comes to stay with them for the handful of days he’s in Konoha. He immediately takes a shine to all of the Uzumakis and Iruka, the Uzumakis because he’s weird and also Naruto’s godfather and Iruka because Iruka is frighteningly proficient at seals.

They--Jiraiya, Kakashi and Iruka--are sitting at the kotatsu on the second day of his visit and Kakashi just mostly wants to die. The many years since he’d seen the older man dulled his memories of their previous visits, but now that Jiraiya’s back the memories have also come flooding back. How the hell did his father even tolerate Jiraiya? How does anyone tolerate Jiraiya?

“Tell me, Iruka, where did you learn how to use seals?” he asks, humming appreciatively when he takes a sip of the tea Sakura had prepared for them. She seemed mostly creeped out by Jiraiya. Kakashi could relate.

_ My mother taught me the basics _ , Iruka signs, an actual smile on his face because he likes Jiraiya for some reason. Probably has something to do with him telling stories about Kakashi as a very young child. _ But most of it I taught myself.  _ Kakashi can’t help some pride that wells up in him. Iruka is razor-sharp intelligent; in time he’ll probably be better than Jiraiya with seals.

Jiraiya whistles, looking at him with wide, excited eyes. “And Kakashi says you reconstructed Naruto’s seal in less than a week?”

Iruka flushes, nods. He isn’t one to brag, and Kakashi fucking loves him for it. Kakashi just fucking loves him, full stop.

“So how did you reconstruct the base matrix? Did you use the same base for the Eight Trigrams seal that Minato used in the first place?” Jiraiya asks excitedly, and they devolve into a rapid-fire conversation about Naruto’s seal and how he constructed the new one. All of it flies over Kakashi’s head, but he’s content enough to just rest his head on one hand and stare at Iruka’s face, animated and excited and alive.

-

Jiraiya catches onto it. Typical, really, but Kakashi hoped he wouldn’t because Jiraiya has a tendency to...well, he’s a womanizer, an author of many porn books, and absolutely fucking shameless. Those three in combination is generally a disaster.

Iruka heads off to help make dinner and Kakashi is momentarily left alone with Jiraiya. His cousin turns on him with an absolutely shit-eating grin stretching across his face. “You saved him from dying?” he asks, looking absolutely titillated. 

Kakashi waves a hand, “No, Mao did. I just made sure he got back to the village.”

“You saved him from dying,” Jiraiya says again, as if in confirmation. With a flourish, he pulls out a notebook and pen from somewhere and flipping it open to scribble something down. Oh, good god, Kakashi knows what he’s doing even before Jiraiya looks back up with a peculiar glint in his eyes and says, “You know, I’ve been needing inspiration for my next book; hit something of a dry spell. And that is nothing if not a love story right there--imagine it, it opens with--”

“--fuck, no,” Kakashi lunges across the table and manages to grab the pen but not the book, Jiraiya scooting back out of his range, “I don’t care if you are a Sannin and my cousin, I already killed Orochimaru, I can damn well kill you!”

Jiraiya chuckles, the sound very evil and very ominous. “You confirmed it, you naive youngster. How the hell have you managed to uphold your reputation these days? And Orochimaru? That old-timer?”

“I don’t have a reputation anymore and Orochimaru was three years younger than you,” Kakashi deadpans, throwing the pen at Jiraiya. As much as he appreciates the Icha Icha books and the fact that the author is his cousin (and sends him first editions whenever a new one is published), one of his own life would be all levels of creepy. Not to mention that Jiraiya would most definitely send him at least ten copies all inscribed with thanks for giving him inspiration.

The scenario seems frighteningly real until Jiraiya’s smile drops to one of more normal mirth, and he sits back forward with his arms on the table. “Relax, kid, I wouldn’t do that. I’m glad for you; too many things are going to shit nowadays, it’s good to have some positive stuff happening in the world.”

Kakashi makes a show of rolling his visible eye but his chest feels warm. Jiraiya all but dropped off the map after Kakashi had become a jounin, and if he was being honest he missed actually having a family member around. Jiraiya knew his history like nobody else did, anymore. He’d been the one to help Kakashi deal with the fallout and trauma of finding his father dead; he’d been busy as hell but he had still made time for his only cousin. “You’re overly sentimental,” Kakashi says.

Jiraiya sends him a leer. “Says the man who was staring at Umino Iruka with bedroom eyes. I got you, cousin.”

Kakashi rolls his eye again as the door opens and his team spills in with no warning other than a loud bark from Kihada. That bark brings Kakashi’s own ninken running from the various places they’ve sprawled around the house, and soon they are so overrun that Kakashi can’t even hope to continue his conversation with Jiraiya.

He makes do with a dark look sent Jiraiya’s way; Jiraiya just laughs and asks Mimi, Akio, and Hanako if they want to hear stories about their sensei as a little kid. Kakashi’s torn between killing his cousin or his team as the kids chorus “Yes!”

-

Jiraiya’s stay plateaus and actually gets a little better once Inoichi and Shikaku have dragged the Sannin to a conference with the Council. He spends the rest of his days in Konoha collecting the leads he has on Tsunade and checking to see which ones are most accurate and most recent. It’s a hell of a job, but Kakashi knows that Jiraiya lives and breathes espionage; he knows what he’s doing and he’s good at it.

The last night of his stay Jiraiya outlines his journey to Kakashi while they watch Kurenai and her team go through some genjutsu training at the back of the house.

“I’ll head south through the Land of Wave--the information from there is older but reliable, and it’s possible she doubled back through. Then west; Tsunade hates the Land of Water and has only been there once in her life when not on a mission. I can’t imagine she’d be there, but I’ll head where the information takes me,” he takes a sip of sake; Mao is on his other side and she discreetly moves the jar of alcohol away before he can pour himself more.

“Hopefully she’s not in the Land of Water, they just had a bad uprising through most of the western islands; try to avoid it,” Mao says, because she, like Jiraiya, seems to have contacts everywhere.

Jiraiya nods sagely. “A bloody spring, they call it. Really, they should call it a normal spring, given the place’s history--where was I? West? Yeah, I’ll hit up the gambling towns; she won’t have gotten far. I swear to god, she sees a gambling den she has to spend a full week there losing all of her money. Makes her easy to track, though.” 

“You’re going alone?” Kakashi asks, because he has an idea that’s been ruminating in his head but he’s not sure Jiraiya would want to go along.

“It would be quickest but,” Jiraiya watches Karin dump Naruto into the pond, where he shrieks as the koi start nibbling on him. “I doubt she’ll listen if it’s just me.”

“I was thinking,” Kakashi rolls his eyes when Jiraiya groans at that, “you could take Naruto and his teammates.” At the raised eyebrow that Jiraiya gives him, Kakashi elaborates, “Well, you are his godfather, anyway. Might as well try doing godfather stuff.”

Jiraiya winces, but he does look like he’s considering it.

-

Somehow Jiraiya, with Shikaku and Inoichi, manages to convince the council that he needs to take Kurenai and her team with him to go find Tsunade. Kakashi is fairly sure it involved some sort of yelling or genjutsu but nobody speaks about it once it’s done.

Kurenai looks less than thrilled with the whole thing, and Kakashi can relate. The mere thought of spending three weeks, give or take, with a legendary pervert like Jiraiya and three children who aren’t even chuunin level is enough to give him the starting of a migraine. He takes her aside at the gate and discreetly gives her a flask of the most potent liquor Anko owns. She had donated it after hearing about the trip.

“If you don’t want it, you can always dose him with it,” Kakashi says, jerking a thumb to point at Jiraiya, who is already riling up the kids.

Kurenai looks at him, looks at the flask, looks at Jiraiya and the kids. She takes the flask, flips the lid open, and takes a healthy swig. “Thanks,” she says, wincing slightly. The flask gets closed and tucked into her pack.

Kakashi isn’t the only one to see them off; Inoichi and Shikaku are there as well, looking more and more hopeless as the minutes drag on.

“Right!” Kurenai announces, shocking her team into silence. “We should get going, don’t want to waste more time.”

Jiraiya salutes her, then Kakashi, then Shikaku and Inoichi. They look miserable. “I’ll send word if anything comes up,” he says, a mite more seriously. “If Tsunade says no, there’s no chance I’ll be able to bring her back.”

Shikaku and Inoichi nod in understanding. Tsunade is terrifying and terrifyingly powerful, everyone knows that.

Then they’re heading off, and Kakashi hefts a sigh of relief at seeing the back of Jiraiya. Well, for the time being.

-

The relief of Jiraiya being absent for a few weeks lasts only a day. The day after he and Team Kurenai leave, Mao comes home from the hospital six hours early, bags dark under her eyes and her hands shaking slightly. She doesn’t even take her shoes off before entering the kitchen, where Kakashi is making himself, the dogs, and Iruka lunch.

“The Hokage has passed on,” she says, dropping her bag and slumping down at the table. “He never even regained consciousness.”

Kakashi stops dead, drops the daikon he was peeling. “I need,” he says, already leaving the room before he can finish the sentence. He needs to find Iruka; the man’s relationship with the Hokage was never the same after he returned from that disastrous mission with Mizuki, but he looked up to the old man and enjoyed his company when it did not involve politics.

Iruka is sitting on the back porch, watching the dogs try to get the koi out of the pond and rather failing. He looks up when Kakashi arrives, confusion evident on his face, and all Kakashi needs to say is, “The Hokage,” before understanding and sorrow cross his face.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Akatsuki is revealed, and Jiraiya is, once again, a nuisance.

For all that it’s been over twenty years since Tsunade has set foot in Konoha, she’s exactly as Kakashi remembers: loud, brash, and ready to fight basically everyone. He likes her much more than Jiraiya, even though her first reaction upon seeing him is to turn to Jiraiya and ask, “Wait, ain’t that Sakumo’s kid? Ka--Kakashi, yeah? When’d he get so damn big?”

To which Jiraiya makes a comment on her age and promptly gets punched in the face.

Kakashi is just delighted that Kurenai and her team got back safely, if not completely sane. As soon as they hit the gates and the greeting party awaiting them, Kurenai disappears off in the direction of the good shinobi bar without a backward glance.

It’s been all of five weeks that Naruto, Karin and Sakura were gone, but they all are sporting tans and look better off than before they had left. That is, they look better off until Kakashi sees the three of Sakura’s fingers that are splinted, the singed ends of Karin’s hair, and the scabs all over Naruto’s hands and arms.

He decides to let that lie until they get home. No doubt they will have stories to tell, and he doesn’t want Mao and Iruka to miss it. Or his team, who have been spending most of their days at the Hatake house lazing around and just generally being nuisances. Kakashi honestly can’t even complain about them by that point, they do help around the house in exchange for meals and training.

In fact, they’re washing the dogs in the front courtyard when Kakashi gets back, Naruto, Sakura and Karin in tow. Jiraiya and Tsunade left for the Hokage Tower with Shikaku, but promised to stop by after they were done there.

“Was Jiraiya telling us the truth?” Sakura asks, while they help Mimi and Akio pack up the dog shampoo and move inside. Kakashi looks at her in a questioning way, and she adds, “The--the Hokage? He died?”

Kakashi pauses; the other kids aren’t listening to them. He nods, and her face pinches a little but she doesn’t say anything else, just nods briskly and goes to catch up with Karin.

It’s a little worrisome, but out of all of the kids Sakura is probably the most well-adjusted. He keeps an eye on her for the afternoon regardless of that, and is relieved when she enthusiastically helps Karin and Naruto explain all the things that they did and all the places they visited. They did stay for a few days in the Land of Waves, and traveled as far west as one of the smaller villages inside the eastern border of the Land of Wind. Typical, they mostly just went to gambling towns and tourist traps, and it was at one of those that they found Tsunade, losing all money she had been loaned.

See, typical.

Surprisingly, she actually was willing to visit Konoha once she heard that Hiruzen had been badly wounded. Even if she intensely disagreed with many of his actions and beliefs he was her teacher, and one of the few people left in Konoha she still cared about. They learned of his death while on the road back to the Land of Fire, but she had still insisted on returning to Konoha.

Paying her respects, in all likelihood, Kakashi thought. Also likely going to dig out news about Orochimaru and what had actually happened to the Hokage. She wasn’t going to expect the Council (well, more specifically the older generation of Ino-Shika-Cho and Ibiki) to ask her to take the position of Godaime Hokage. Kakashi is readied for the worst, in all honesty, and he knows that everyone else who knows of Tsunade is prepared as well.

“Ne, ne, Kakashi, what did y’all do while we were gone?” Naruto asks once he has exhausted his own stories for them.

Kakashi can’t exactly say “fuck-all” but. They didn’t do much of anything. The only thing he can really think that happened was Akio deciding to start breeding Kihada, though he hadn’t yet chosen a stud. And there was no way he was going to say that, either, so he settled on one of his signature vague-bullshit answers. “We just sat and watched the clouds float by.”

That earns him a look of mixed suspicion and annoyance, but Naruto doesn’t pursue to topic further.

-

Tsunade and Jiraiya make it to the house very late, both smelling of alcohol. They’re only tipsy, which is a relief, but they still make an uncalled-for amount of noise while coming inside.

The kids in general have gone to bed, which probably means they’re actually gossiping in their rooms, which leaves Iruka and Kakashi in the kitchen. Mao is off on a date (with whom, she wouldn’t share), so Kakashi is watching Iruka make amazake using his mom’s recipe and hoping that they might be able to get in some extracurricular fun in before bed.

The arrival of Tsunade and Jiraiya puts a damper on that, if only because Tsunade starts complaining about how hungry she is as soon as they set foot in the kitchen.

Kakashi sighs, starts some soup for her and Jiraiya. He apparently forgot how much Tsunade and his cousin fed off each other, because they spend a good ten minutes ripping into each other before nearly descending to tears over Orochimaru.

“There are children living in this house,” Kakashi reminds them when he hands off their bowls. Jiraiya rolls his eyes but Tsunade snaps her fingers, points directly at Kakashi’s face.

“I was gonna ask ya, brat, but how did that happen?” she manages to get out. Kakashi someone gets the general gist of the question.

“They like me,” he says mildly.

Tsunade chokes on the mouthful of noodles she had consumed. Kakashi can’t help an eye-twitch in annoyance. The last time she saw him when he was five, for fucks sake, he’s changed. Jiraiya guffaws, but does turn pale when Kakashi sends the patented Hatake death glare at him. 

Kakashi decides the best course of action is to just ignore them, so he returns to the stove, where Iruka is pouring the amazake off into a pitcher to cool. After he’s done with that, and the stock pot is soaking in the sink, he touches Kakashi’s hand with his and asks  _ could you introduce us? _

Jiraiya and Tsunade are beginning to sober up, so Kakashi doesn’t feel as reluctant to introduce Iruka to Tsunade. “Iruka, this is Senju Tsunade. Tsunade, Umino Iruka.”

“Nice ta meet ya, Iruka-kun!” she salutes him with her chopsticks, inadvertently sticking a noodle to her forehead.

Iruka signs  _ It is nice to meet you as well _ , before giving Kakashi a somewhat confused look. Yeah, Kakashi would generally believe the Sannin Senju Tsunade to be more eloquent or at least graceful, but she’s none of those things.

-

Jiraiya returns to living in the Hatake house (though he insists that it is a temporary arrangement), and with him comes Tsunade.

Kakashi is partly annoyed by this, because really there’s no room for two more people to stay at the house, what with his team insisting on staying over most nights. But at the same time, Tsunade’s presence is very welcome for her work at the hospital. He doesn’t hear any news on the new-Hokage front, but given that Tsunade is still in Konoha and occasionally slips off to the Tower or the hospital, he’s fairly sure she’s going to accept. In either case, she seems to be remaining busy and staying out of Kakashi’s hair, for the most part.

The same cannot be said about Jiraiya, who has apparently decided that he needs to make up for his absent years and annoy the hell out of Kakashi at every chance he gets. It gets to a point where Kakashi is considering asking for a solo long-term mission just to get the hell away from him.

-

Iruka remains somewhat charmed with Jiraiya, a viewpoint shared by all of the Uzumaki and nobody else. On the other hand, he is likewise charmed with Tsunade, for all of the horrible impression she made on him during their introduction. Kakashi can understand Tsunade, at least.

Tsunade actually accepts to take over the position of Hokage, after a lengthy but successful negotiation that turns the Council into a more democratic political establishment. She returns to the house without much fanfare after that has been officially decided, announces that she’ll be moving into the Hokage’s residence the next day. The Sarutobi family had cleaned out the third Hokage’s things, and her assistant, Shizune, would be arriving the next day to help her.

Having Tsunade move out is a relief, but she still loudly promises to stop by every week for dinner, and Jiraiya makes zero attempt to find somewhere else to live. They don’t even know how long Jiraiya is going to stay; it is a given that he'll at least be staying until Tsunade is more comfortable in her role as Hokage. Past that, though, it doesn't even seem that even he knows.   


Grudgingly, Kakashi will admit that he is beginning to enjoy having Jiraiya around. The man is one of the most powerful shinobi in the world and the fact that he's in Konoha makes the village and their situation seem safer. Not that it is, necessarily, unsafe or dire. Kakashi knows from sitting in on meetings that Konoha is doing decently in the eyes of the other shinobi villages, and that overall mission rates and hiring are both up.   


In fact, Kakashi is sent on a mission with his team a few weeks after Kurenai and Jiraiya get back, and Tsunade has officially been instated as Hokage. They leave in the midst of preparations for an election for the council seats, which have been expanded to five, excluding the seat the Hokage will have.   


Kakashi hopes that they will be able to return quickly, but he hasn't taken his team on a mission since Orochimaru, and despite their daily training sessions they are a little rusty. So he has them doing exercises on observation while they escort the Daimyo of the Land of Fire to a meeting in the Land of Iron. Despite it being fall, there's thick snow as they enter the country, and nobody complains more about it than the daimyo.   


If the old man wasn't paying them a lot, Kakashi would honestly just abandon him. It isn’t as if the Daimyo has a whole lot of power, anymore, but they are the ones who negotiate things like trade agreements and immigration, so he grudgingly agrees that they are necessary, in a way.   


They arrive after nearly two weeks of travel. It is a relief that they get good quarters, and they only have to be guarding the Daimyo in shifts. Two shinobi for six hours each, and the samurai have set patrols during the night, so they don’t have to worry about overextending themselves on night shifts. But it is annoying that all of the Daimyo insist on getting together for card games nearly every night. Overall, the mission is easy, and when it comes time for them to travel back to the Land of Fire, Kakashi is actually a little sad to leave.   


-   


Within a month of Tsunade becoming Hokage and all of the pomp and circumstance that followed, Mimi is elevated to jounin. That means she's able to take solo missions or be captain for chuunin, and Kakashi is left in Konoha on his team’s next mission. The three kids who he trained are sent to flush a cell of shinobi formerly loyal to Orochimaru, and Kakashi would be lying if he said that he wasn't just a little nervous.   


They're fully capable, he knows, but at the same time whenever he looks at them he sees the kids that he first met a couple years before, young and not really knowing what  the future would hold.   


_ You're a parent _ , Iruka tells him when he's actually pacing one evening, worrying over the fact that they were supposed to be back the day before.  _ They'll be fine _ .   


"How do you know?" Kakashi asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.   


_ Because you trained them, and I know you _ , Iruka signs, raising an eyebrow of his own.   


-   


Iruka is right, as Iruka often is. The kids and ninken straggle into Konoha late the next day, with information on another squad of missing-nin that need to be taken down. All things considered, especially the fact that they were fighting a squad of six people with only three, all of them are in good shape, and Kakashi doesn't protest Tsunade's decision to send them back out.   


This time, though, Kakashi is sent with them. He and his ninken have more tracking experience than Kihada and Akio, and it's a good lesson for all of the kids as they hunt down the ten other people that the information was on.   


When they return, Konoha is beginning to turn to fall, and they've been away for nearly a month. The new council is in place; an Uchiha and one of the branch Hyuuga members were elected to it, as well as a civilian and a retired shinobi that Kakashi doesn't know.   


Tsunade has been implementing a number of projects, but one of the most widespread is a survey of the health of everyone in Konoha. When they return from the mission, Kakashi reports in for his team and is informed that he needs to show up at the hospital the next day for a physical, or else earn the wrath of the Godaime Hokage herself.   
As much as he dislikes the hospital, and as much as that dislike has decreased in the past years, Kakashi only goes because he doesn't want to get murdered by Tsunade. Plus, he's due for a physical, it's been nearly a year.   


-   


A week after his physical, and a couple days after Iruka's, the Hatake house receives a bird from the Hokage, with a message for Iruka to report to her office that afternoon. The tone of the message sounds ominous, so when Kakashi volunteers to go with Iruka, the man readily and almost desperately agrees.   


The Tower is mostly empty when they arrive, the general staff off on lunch, but Shizune is still sitting at her desk outside of Tsunade's office. She waves them in when she sees them.   


"Tsunade-sama is done with her meeting, so you can go right in now," the Hokage's assistant says, getting up and shoving the small pig that follows her everywhere away from the door to the office. She raps on it twice, then holds the door open for Iruka and Kakashi to go through.   


Tsunade is nearly up to her shoulders in papers, and when she looks up and sees them she sighs. "Ah, Umino-san, thank you for comin'," she says, pulling off her reading glasses and rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I have somethin' for ya to consider. Please, sit."   


They do as told. Tsunade makes no mention of Kakashi’s presence, nor tells him to leave. It’s reassuring. "I want ya to consider lettin' me go in an' surgically heal your throat."   


Iruka looks at her blankly, then the blankness turns into a pinched look that clearly is an expression of pure confusion.   


“I wanted to ask ya 'bout it since I had the chance to look at your charts an' medical history,” Tsunade says, leaning forward. “I would be able ta go in an' reduce the amount of scar tissue, or at least soften it to give your vocal cords back the flexibility needed to allow you ta speak. It would take a couple of surgeries, but the recovery time wouldn't be overly long.”

Iruka hasn’t blinked for the past five minutes, and Kakashi is actually sort of concerned.

_ I’d be able to talk again _ ? Iruka signs, as if needing confirmation that she actually said that.

“Yes,” Tsunade nods firmly.

_ Why couldn’t this have been done before? _   Iruka asks. Kakashi isn’t even surprised that he would ask that, of all things.

“Ya throat and vocal cords needed to heal, an' though they could have attempted to minimize the scarrin', Uzumaki-san would have had to do that herself when she first found you. Her priority was ta keep you alive. In any case, nobody in Konoha is trained well enough in regards to scarrin',” she folds her hands in front of her, leans on her arms. “Ah'm not the only one who would be able to do this, but ah'm the only person in Konoha.”

_ What sort of time frame _ ? Iruka signs.   


"It will be some weeks before I can get to ya, and I want to make sure I know what exactly ah'm goin' into, so you'll need some imagin' done," Tsunade replies, tugging a paper out of her desk and scribbling on it, "in addition, I want to do some extra blood tests to make sure you won't have any reactions to any medication I might be using. After that, the surgery will take a couple hours at most. Ya won't have to fully recover before the second one, which will give us a smallah wait time. After that it will depend on your prognosis at the time, but I don't expect recovery ta take more than a few weeks."   


Iruka looks at her somewhat blankly again, though from the look in his eyes Kakashi can tell that he is intensely considering the offer. He does look up, send a glance to Kakashi, but there's nothing that Kakashi can say to him. Iruka can do what he wants, even if the thought of being able to hear his voice is enough to want him to say yes, in Kakashi's mind.   


_ I'll do it _ , Iruka signs.   


Tsunade offers the two of them a warm, but tired smile. She holds the paper she had been scribbling out for Iruka to take. "Get Shizune ta make a copy of that for ya; take it down to the hospital and they should at least be able to get the blood draw done soon. Imagin' should happen in the next couple o' days, as well. If I do get finished with my work earlier, I will let ya know and we can move the whole thing up."

They bow to her, and as they leave the office to talk to Shizune, Kakashi finds one of his hands tightly gripped by Iruka.   


"Are you sure you want to do this?" Kakashi asks, quietly so Tsunade and Shizune can’t hear. Not being able to vocalize hasn't presented any issues so far to Iruka, and Kakashi can't foresee any issues cropping up in the future, either.   


Iruka firmly nods, and turns to give him a nervous but warm sideways smile.   


-   


The plans for the surgery are kept under wraps; Mao is told, but that is because she works at the hospital and was Iruka’s primary carer when he was first injured. Anyway, she is going to be one of Tsunade's assistants during the two operations. The kids, though, are not told, mostly because they are busy with missions and training, and Kurenai was trying to get higher-level missions to take her team on which means that they’re often out of Konoha.   


Kakashi does debate over telling his own team, but they are very well acquainted with Naruto and Karin after months spent lazing around the Hatake house. They would most definitely tell; he holds off.   


It is just his luck that the day of the first surgery, after he has taken Iruka to the hospital, Shizune (who was looking after Tsunade's duties while she was at the hospital) calls him and his team in for an emergency mission. A temple outside of Konoha had been ransacked and the individuals that did it needed to be hunted down. Kakashi is angry as hell as he stops by to pick up his pack from the house, after informing his team to meet at the gate. Shizune had looked very worried, though, and Kakashi knows that if it is an emergency there is nothing that she could really do to shove the mission off on someone else.   


"We're heading south," he debriefs his team as they leave the village, "a temple off the southern road was attacked last night, and many of the monks living there were killed."  No questions are asked; all of them, even Kihada, nod in understanding, and they take off in single file through the trees, their pace demanding.   


The temple is in a sorry state when they arrived. Kakashi has personally never been to the complex in question, but it is well-known throughout the Land of Fire and the shinobi  world as a whole. He also vaguely remembers that several shinobi, including Asuma, have--or had--connections to some of the monks living there.   


It is instantly clear that the news Shizune had received was wrong, because there are only three living monks in the entire complex. Kakashi knows from the information in the mission scroll that there had been upwards of a hundred men living there. Not only that, but the complex itself is mostly destroyed; only two buildings remain standing, and even they are damaged. The three monks are shaken, and Kakashi makes food for all of them before they bed down for the night.   


They assist with body recovery while they are there the next day, Kihada helping Kakashi's ninken track the people who had decimated the complex and the men living in it. The remaining monks had contacted one of their sibling monasteries in the north to send people down to help them, but they are still several days away. And, once they have the bodies out, the remaining monks could proceed to burial rites.   


And an unintentional piece of information that comes out of their effort to find the corpses is the discovery that one body is missing. They'd found and laid out ninety-five bodies; the body of the head monk of the temple was gone, and Kakashi has a bad feeling when the remaining monks mentions who it is. He knows as well as any shinobi of worth of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, and particularly of those still remaining. Sarutobi Asuma, and the monk Chiriku.   


The ninken come back when they finally finish excavating the bodies and clean up the standing structures as best they can. There is no time to rest; the shinobi that had destroyed the temple are apparently at a bounty station several kilometers away.   


Kakashi orders Kihada and Akio to rest for an hour and help the monks begin cremations, then follow and catch up. The rest of them take off for the bounty station at the same rapid speed they had used to get to the temple.   


-   


Kakashi is very grateful that Shizune said she would be sending out a team after them to act as backup. They damn well need it, once they find the two shinobi at the bounty station. He doesn’t recognize either of them, but it is safe to say that they are extremely high-level simply given the devastation at the temple. While two of Kakashi's team, including himself, are jounin and they have a number advantage, something about the two men rubs him the wrong way.   


Particularly when the silver-haired man shows himself capable of taking all hits they deal, and not dying.   


The ninken come in handy, and they spend most of their time keeping the men in one place until their backup comes. Kakashi breathes an actual sigh of relief when Gai and his team appear from the trees. If he isn’t mistaken, Neji is also a jounin, and Tenten and Lee are being considered for nonstandard elevations to special jounin as well. And since Kakashi knows the strengths of Gai and his team inside and out, it gives him an advantage in planning their offensive.   


Neji and Lee he sends to take care of the man who seems more reluctant to join the battle; he has a strange sort of cowl over his head, and hadn't betrayed any of his skills to them in the time it had taken for Gai's team to arrive. Both Neji and Lee are close-quarters fighters, so he has Akio and Kihada join them to mix up the combat styles. The rest of them wage a full assault on the silver-haired man. It takes them a while, but eventually he is immobilized and Mimi and Tenten are moving to trap him in multiple layers of genjutsu before sealing him in a pot that Tenten had put together to seal live opponents into. Kakashi, Hanako and Gai go to help the others.   


They need it. Admittedly, Neji managed to figure out that the man they are fighting has multiple chakra systems, all of them of a different chakra typing. That meant that he  could use multiple different ninjutsu in combination, and to devastating effect. The two of them had managed to eliminate one of the extra chakra systems, which was connected to a heart. That leaves four left for them to deal with.   


Again, Kakashi is overwhelmed with appreciation and fondness for Gai when the man single-handedly takes down two of the hearts. The remaining five of them converge on the other two, working seamlessly as a mixed squad. It is ultimately a long, drawn-out battle, but they succeed.   


Tenten seals the man's dead body into a scroll, while Kakashi and Gai get Chiriku’s body back from the bounty station; whoever had been on duty is gone. There is also the case of money to recover, and once they have destroyed all remaining traces of their encounter at the bounty station, they head back to Konoha through the woods.   


-   


It appears that they stumbled into something much bigger than just a couple of bounty hunters. As soon as Inoichi and Ibiki get their hands on the living man and the corpse, Jiraiya is called in, and Tsunade cloisters him and herself down in Ibiki's basement. Kakashi doesn’t give a single damn; the mission had taken four days, and that means that  Iruka had undergone his first surgery and is likely going to have his second one soon.   


After sending his team back to their respective homes and telling them not to show up at his house under threat of violence, Kakashi goes home and takes the most perfunctory of showers before heading back out to the hospital.   


Iruka is awake when he arrives, sitting up in his bed perusing a scroll that concerns seals, Kakashi is not surprised to see. What does surprise him was that it is one of the ones stamped as being in the Hokage's private library, which means it likely has forbidden jutsu in it.   


Sliding open the glass door informs Iruka of his arrival, and the man quickly reseals the scroll in his hands, slaps a second seal on it as well.   


"Hey," Kakashi says, and even he can tell that he sounds exhausted. "How'd it go?"   


_ Good _ , Iruka signs, gesturing to his throat. There is minimal bandaging, none of it bled through.  _ She said she'll get the second one done in two days. Shizune said you were on a mission? _   


Kakashi sighs, annoyed. "Yeah, the Fire Temple down south got razed. We caught the guys who did it. It took too long, I wanted to be here."   


Iruka gives him a beatific smile, and Kakashi really can't stay annoyed when faced with that.  _ I'm glad you made it back safely _ , he signed,  _ all of the kids okay _ ?   


"Doing fantastic," Kakashi replies, scooting the chair he’s sitting in a little closer to the bed. "We weren't stuck with just one medic, apparently Neji has been learning from Tsunade with Sakura and Karin and Ino."   


Iruka nods in approval, holds a hand out. Kakashi takes it, not even wary in his exhaustion, and is pulled into Iruka's arms.  _ Missed you _ , Iruka writes on one of his hands, and Kakashi smiles wider, buries his head against the unbandaged part of Iruka's neck, inhales deeply.   


-   


Typically, they're sent out again the day before Iruka has his second surgery. Kakashi would be furious, but given what they learned from the body and man that they brought back on the last mission, it's necessary.   


Jiraiya has apparently been hearing a lot of chatter about a group called Akatsuki through his contacts across the shinobi countries, and it seems that the two men they fought were members of that group. Their goals are unclear, other than that they seem to be killing and turning in a lot of bounties.

By chance, Jiraiya has new information on a pair of them. A different pair, seen in the Land of Lightning, apparently searching out one of the jinchuuriki that lives there. With the Raikage's consent, on the condition he is given all information that they learned, Tsunade sends Kakashi and his team, Gai and his team, and Jiraiya to the Land of Lightning to apprehend the Akatsuki members seen there.   


It is for a good purpose, but still, Kakashi is loathe to leave. He has a second chance to stop by the hospital before they leave, but Iruka is on a higher dose of pain medicine and is very out of it. It is with great annoyance that Kakashi meets the squad and they leave.   


At least Jiraiya is there, he makes the whole thing a lot more bearable just by being the genial idiot that he was. They travel for four days to the border of the Land of Lightning, and Jiraiya finds some of his contacts in the region to figure out where the Akatsuki members are or where they might be heading. Information comes back quickly; the two men they are looking for are just inside the Land of Lightning, staying at a large town along one of the main trade routes.   


It is easy to find the town, given a description, and likewise fairly easy to find the men. The long cloaks embroidered with clouds seem to be a uniform. On their first day in the town one of Kakashi's ninken finds one of them while trotting the streets in the guise of a stray.   


There is another day of surveillance before the men leave the village to confirm that there are two of them and they didn’t split up. When they do leave, it is to deeper into the Land of Lightning. Once they are a couple kilometers out of the town, the shinobi from Konoha strike.   
-   
Kakashi is extremely thankful that they have Neji with them. Because he is a medic, yes, but also because the Byakugan gives them a sharp edge in most fights.   
One of the men seems familiar to Kakashi, probably from the bingo book; he looks like a shark in the guise of a man, acts as viciously as a shark to boot. He attempts to get away after having sharks made of water shred his partner, but thanks to the Byakugan Neji is able to distinguish him from his sword and decoy sharks. After that, it is a matter of Gai and Lee kicking his ass.   


The ruthlessness on his part, especially that directed at his former partner, is concerning; once Tenten has the body sealed in a scroll, they regroup.

“I’ll need to head out and try to find more information on these freaks,” Jiraiya says before anyone else says or does anything. “If they were looking for jinchuuriki in the Land of Lightning, it’s safe to bet that they won’t confine their search to solely the Land of Lightning.”

“Will you head off from here?” Kakashi asks. He gestures for Akio to look over Lee, who’s limping.

“Tryin’ to get rid of me, cousin?” Jiraiya goads, but his face is grim. “Yes, I will be. I will send back word if I hear anything, and I’ll try to be back to Konoha soon.”

“Safe travels,” Gai says. The rest echo the sentiment, and Jiraiya disappears into the woods, heading back toward the Land of Fire.

Once everyone has been looked over and declared at leastly mostly healthy, they begin the journey back to Konoha.

-

It takes them five days to return, due to an unseasonable snowfall that sets them back a day. Kakashi is half-ready to just press on by himself, but even his chakra is beginning to get low. All of them are obligated to go to Tsunade’s office to report, but it’s relatively quick. With Jiraiya off gathering more information, there isn’t much that can be done other than try to extract more information from the silver-haired man (apparently named Hidan) and the two corpses.

As much as Kakashi wants to be at the hospital, next to Iruka, he is more worried about his team. Once they’re all safe in their homes or apartments, he goes back to his own house. Mao is there but the kids are not; off training, in all likelihood. He takes a bath, eats at Mao’s insistence, the heads immediately to the hospital.

-

Again, Iruka is alone in his room, but this time he is sleeping. Kakashi slips in after promising the medic on duty not to wake Iruka up, and settles himself in one of the chairs next to the bed. It’s good that he always keeps a book in his weapons pouch, because he has about half an hour of reading before Iruka wakes up on his own.

Kakashi puts his book down at the first sign of wakefulness--fluttering eyelashes, changes to his heart rate. Iruka blinks up at the dimmed but still bright ceiling lights, turns to blearily consider Kakashi when the man clears his throat.

“Hey,” Kakashi says, leaning forward. According to Mao, Iruka had begun talking a couple days before; Kakashi is pissed to hell that he missed it.

“Hey,” Iruka says, smiling fondly at him. The gesture is slow with sleep and his voice is rough--Tsunade had said it would be for the rest of his life no matter sort of therapy he received--but it is the most beautiful thing that Kakashi has heard or seen.

“I love you,” Kakashi finds himself saying.

With one hand, Iruka gently tugs Kakashi in for a hug, and whispers into his ear, “I love you, too.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things come to a head, and the future remains uncertain, as it always is.

Time passes, but not quickly. Kakashi finds himself savoring day-to-day life more than he used to. Iruka works on talking more; Naruto begins learning about seals while Karin and Sakura make leaps and bounds in their learning under Tsunade; Hanako and Akio are elevated to jounin. With Tsunade at the helm of Konoha and Danzou no longer a threat, the village flourishes as it hadn’t for some years.

Since Kakashi’s team is graduated and no longer under his purview, he does get assigned a new team several months after Tsunade becomes Hokage and they are all officially made into jounin. Uchiha Sasuke, due to a probably well-thought decision on his parents’ part, delayed his petition to retry becoming a genin. As such, he winds up on Kakashi’s team, and Kakashi is mixed about the whole thing. On one hand, he really admires Itachi especially because the younger man has taken on a genin team of his own and taught his brother a lot; on the other hand, Sasuke is not his brother and has perhaps the biggest inferiority complex Kakashi has ever encountered. The other two are a handful, as well--Hyuuga Hanabi, and the third Hokage’s grandson, Sarutobi Konohamaru. He is by no means the only grandchild the man had, but he is the most spoiled of all of them and all but refuses to work as part of a team the first few weeks.

Frankly, he doesn’t know how they passed his test, but they did. And as difficult as his first team was, his second team is worse; time to see if his methods hold up.

-

In another couple months, the chuunin exam comes around again. Kurenai had already voiced her opinion of submitting her team again, and Kakashi is much more prepared for them to take it the second time. He decides, even though the decision has Hiashi showing up at the house in absolute fury at all times of the day, that he won’t be submitting his own team into the exam. They are not prepared at  _ all _ .

“Team Asshole,” as Hanabi has taken to calling them. He honestly agrees; their teamwork is steadily improving, and all three kids are rather skilled in their own ways, but  _ god _ they are the worst kids Kakashi has ever had to deal with.

None of Kakashi’s former students receive genin teams, and Kakashi can understand why. They are, at most, seventeen, and Kakashi can’t really imagine them taking care of themselves, let alone a team of needy genin. They still show up at the house, every couple of days. Kakashi doesn’t complain; he feels somewhat protective of them, as though they are his own kids. And it means he can throw his new team at them, give them a feel for what teaching is like.

-

Jiraiya finally returns to Konoha a week before the chuunin exam starts. Nearly immediately, he takes up residence in the Hatake home and there is nothing anyone can do to pry him out. Also immediately, he and Iruka fall into cahoots, staying up late to talk seals and other things that are kept secret from everyone else, even Kakashi.

It would rub him the wrong way, but Kakashi has learned to not care too much about other people’s business. Anyway, he has a trio of teens to train, and it takes most of his brainpower to simply figure out ways to make them cooperate. Secret talks that probably are dealing with important information is, for once, above his pay grade.

Two days before the chuunin exam is set to start, Kakashi and his team are sent out of Konoha on a C-rank mission. He’s more than a little annoyed with the whole thing; he wanted to be there for Karin and Naruto and Sakura. By the time they get back the teams of genin are well on their way to Sunagakure, and Kakashi is informed that he’s to stay in Konoha.

That earns more grumbling, but since Iruka has to stay in Konoha as well (Tsunade has him and Jiraiya working on something for her) he isn’t complaining too much. It’s bad enough that she has to travel to Sunagakure, but given that relations with the other hidden village have vastly improved since the fourth Kazekage died, she isn’t that likely to be attacked. Still, she is taking a lot of Anbu with her, as well as the jounin teachers whose teams are participating, for the full three weeks that the rest of the exam will take.

So Kakashi has a bunch of free time with which to train his students, which he really would rather not do, but there’s no better time than the present to whip them into shape.

He has a breakthrough on the first day, which means the rest of it is looking up. Sasuke, who has been rather meek and frustrated, finally snaps and lays both Konohamaru and Hanabi on their asses. They get into a screaming argument and come out of it respecting Kakashi a hell of a lot more than they used to. When he tells them to read up on group tactics and be prepared to put together attack and defense plans two days from then, the three of them meekly nod and go their ways. That gives him a day of goddamn peace, and he’s going to get as much out of it as he can.

-

He sleeps late the next morning, but Iruka sleeps late as well so it’s well worth it. Cuddling--well, really, any intimate physical contact--was never something he sought out, but with Iruka it feels perfectly natural. Iruka is shorter than Kakashi, but he’s broader, and he typically ends up being the big spoon to Kakashi’s little spoon. Kakashi can’t complain; he seems to be perpetually cold, and Iruka does a rather good job of keeping him warmed up. Cuddling and other ways, he supposes, and they try some of those other ways before they get out of bed.

Iruka hums while putting clothes on, and disappears out of their shared room to start breakfast. Kakashi considers staying in bed, under the warm sheets that probably need a wash. He lingers for a few moments longer, then forces himself up and out of their bed.

Kakashi gets the laundry started before he oozes his way out to the kitchen, where Iruka has breakfast almost completely ready.

“Plans for today?” Iruka asks, his voice extra raspy from sleep.

Kakashi groans at the thought of having to plan out his day, slides behind Iruka and contents himself by wrapping his arms around the other man. “Laundry?” he finally says.

Iruka chuckles, and though the sound is harsh it is beautiful. “Maybe we can spend some time together, then,” he says after a moment’s thought, “haven’t seen you in a while.”

“That can be arranged,” Kakashi says, nuzzling his unmasked face against Iruka’s neck. God, he smells good.

-

They do finish the laundry, immediately after breakfast because the thought of getting to spend his day with Iruka is enough to motivate Kakashi to actually finish chores. Then the day is spent lazing around, doing, delightfully, nothing at all. The dogs seem to have gotten the same memo; they’re lazing around the house, only really rousing when in need of food.

Part of Kakashi has long wanted to retire from the shinobi life, and just enjoy living day to day with Iruka. He knows he can’t do that yet. There’s still at least a little he needs to do; see his new team through their own chuunin exam, help finally get rid of Akatsuki. But being able to spend time with Iruka makes that want itch, no matter how much he wants to let it lie.

“What does Tsunade have you doing, holed up in the Tower all day?” he asks later in the morning, when they’re laying on top of each other on the couch, each reading their own book. Iruka’s is some fantasy that Jiraiya brought back with him (signed by the author, a woman from the Land of Wind), Kakashi’s a book on tree husbandry stuffed into an Icha Icha cover.

“She wants to know what can be done with seals,” Iruka says, answering the question but not really answering it at all. Kakashi pokes him in the ribs. “Okay, okay,” he digs his elbows into Kakashi’s chest so he can prop himself up, “we’re working on a way to transport people long-distance through seals--so far the tests have worked, but we’ve only tested up to fifty kilometers. And long distance seals that can be used for notification and communication--we haven’t tested those ones yet.”

Kakashi is struck, as he often is when he pauses to think about it, that he loves Iruka, quite a lot. “You’re amazing,” he cups Iruka’s face in his hands. That earns a smile, and Iruka nuzzles his face down into Kakashi’s hands. Just when Kakashi thinks his heart might physically explode from how overwhelmed he is, something in the room makes a loud “snap” noise.

Iruka starts, eyes opening at the sound. “Wha--” he pushes himself up, and Kakashi watches with interest as he rushes to the desk against the wall. He doesn’t need to shift through the piles of paper sitting there because he picks up the largest piece, which was carefully draped over the piles.

With a calm hand he flattens the paper on the tabletop of the kotatsu, inspects the writing bordering the large, circular drawing that Kakashi thinks is a seal. As he watches, the writing flows and disappears, and the same snapping noise they’d heard sounds again. Another ring of text forms, flows, and disappears.

Iruka’s face is ashen when he looks to Kakashi, says, “Get Jiraiya.”

-

While Kakashi really doesn’t get seals other than the basis, he can tell that what Jiraiya and Iruka are doing is dangerous. He had arrived with Jiraiya in tow to find Iruka in the front courtyard, a massive roll of thick, bleached cotton waiting on the stones alongside an oversized calligraphy set.

Jiraiya and Iruka stand in quiet conference for several minutes, quiet enough that Kakashi can’t eavesdrop. After is a flurry of activity--Jiraiya unrolls the cotton, which has a massive array printed on it. Iruka grinds out some ink and, with Jiraiya holding the inkwell and occasionally consulting, he writes a series of numbers around the edges of the array, on each of the straights of the cotton. When done, Jiraiya tacks down the corners with rocks before moving to the middle of the cloth, and Iruka positions himself at what seems to be the front of the array.

“Just do it,” Jiraiya says, looking like he is bracing himself for an impact or something of that sort.

Iruka nods, presses his hands to the cloth, and shoves chakra into it.

-

When the lightning and smoke dies down the cloth is gone and so is Jiraiya. Iruka’s shaking a little and Kakashi doesn’t need to use his Sharingan to tell that it’s from chakra loss. He picks the calligraphy set up and Kakashi flickers over to catch him before he trips over himself.

“What’s happened?” Kakashi asks.

“Sunagakure, attacked,” Iruka says.

-

It’s only a day until they get news from the other hidden village, not through the seal but from a messenger bird.

The news is--grim. To say the least.

Shizune calls a meeting of all available shinobi remaining in the mission in order to brief them before the Council calls a general session to inform everyone of the news. Her face is calm, as is her voice, but her eyes are worried as she speaks.

“We have been informed that, during the course of the chuunin exam, Sunagakure was attacked and invaded by enemy shinobi. The Kazekage and our own Hokage are unharmed, but many shinobi and civilians were wounded and killed. We will be sending a unit over to assist with rebuilding and recovery, as well as to escort the Hokage and the rest of the Konohagakure citizens back home.

“No current jounin teachers will be sent, all others please check the list that Ibiki-san has put together,” she gestures to the man, “We must remain vigilant at this time for attacks that may target Konohagakure, so the remaining shinobi will be taking up patrols around Konohagakure. Thank you for your understanding, and your assistance at this time.”

Though he’s relegated to staying in the village, Kakashi does manage to sign up for some of the patrols, but not many. Shizune makes it rather clear that his priority, and that of all of the other jounin teachers, is to train their genin teams.

Iruka can’t do anything, and that fucking chafes worse than anything. Since he’s a civilian Shizune can’t ask him to do anything, and since he is working specifically for Tsunade he’s stuck in that role and job until she reassigns him. They make it, somehow, with the belief that the kids are fine.

-

Tsunade, Jiraiya, and all of the rest arrive back in Konoha two weeks after the attack. Kakashi had been training his team, but once he catches wind of the return he dismisses them and heads to find Iruka.

They are not the only ones heading to the south gate. The streets are full of people but they manage to find a place relatively close to the gate itself where they can wait. A squad of Anbu appears and then disappears, heading to the Tower.

Next comes a squad of normal shinobi, the mix of jounin and chuunin who had gone to assist. Mixed in with them are the genin teams and their jounin teachers. The tension in Kakashi’s shoulders leeches when he counts Kurenai and the kids among them.

Iruka heads down to welcome them, but Kakashi remains. No real news had come after the backup Konoha shinobi had made it to Sunagakure, and he was hesitant to believe that both Tsunade and Jiraiya were completely all right.

Tsunade, actually, did look fine, if not a little worn. She was speaking with some Anbu who disappeared as they neared the gates, and when she looked up to see the crowds a smile slowly spread across her face.

Jiraiya, though--Jiraiya’s seen better days.

-

Once the public has been reassured that the Hokage is well and most of the shinobi who left have returned--two of the Anbu who had gone died in the fight, as well as one of the jounin teachers. Miraculously, all of the genin were alive, if not a little banged up.

Kakashi doesn’t really worry about that, because now that they’re back, Jiraiya is given to his care. Part of him questions Tsunade’s mental wellness with that decision, but then she takes him aside and tells him that what Jiraiya needs is somebody who won’t baby him so he’ll heal. That does describe most of the people living in his house.

So Kakashi has to carry Jiraiya to the house, trailing the rest of his household. They all congregate in the main living room, the kids talking about the happenings in Sunagakure. It helps that they are exhausted from traveling, because soon enough (after all of the congratulations and promises to hear stories the next day) they all head to bed. Naruto is scraped up, his arms bandaged up, and Sakura is sporting some splinted fingers. Karin stays close by Sakura’s side and doesn’t talk much.

Once they’re tucked into bed with the promise of waking them for dinner, Iruka and Mao go to start the meal, leaving Jiraiya and Kakashi alone.

“Akatsuki?” Kakashi asks, because he has a good enough idea now of what happened.

Jiraiya nods, fingers the half-full cup of tea he’s been working through for the past hour. “Their so-called leader, it seems. Their aim was taking the jinchuuriki; somehow we thwarted that.”

“Naruto,” Kakashi slowly says, “the new young Kazekage.”

He nods again. “This was avoidable. We all fucked up,” Jiraiya says. His voice is soft, but full of what might be self-hatred; hatred of the past, the decisions that they all made. “There’s a reason this is happening now. Naruto would be safe if this had been taken care of years ago.”

“Orochimaru?” Kakashi hesitantly asks.

“That.” Jiraiya considers the thick mug of tea in his hands. “Other things. Danzou hired Akatsuki; those who attacked Sunagakure were shinobi from Amegakure that I trained, during the war.”

Kakashi exhales, a hiss of a sound.

“I never came to visit their graves,” Jiraiya says, and Kakashi knows that he is talking about Minato and Kushina. Kakashi has--often, but not as often as he used to, not every day. “I don’t know why they named me his godfather, I’ve been useless at everything.”

Kakashi remains silent. He will admit, he feels the same in a way, that he should’ve been able to do more for Naruto. He knows that that isn’t true for himself, and he feels that it also isn’t very true for Jiraiya; they were all in bad places, mentally and otherwise, after the death of the Fourth and Kushina. “Maybe,” he finally says. “But at least we can all be useful now.”

Jiraiya looks at him, and his expression seems thankful. “Yeah, at least we have that,” he says, downs the rest of his tea. He does smile a little then, bump his shoulder against Kakashi’s. “So, when you asking Iruka to marry you?”

Kakashi sputters into his own mug, but can’t help a small smile.


End file.
